A Family to Call My Own
by IreDash
Summary: Originally a one-shot, Naruko has found the people she holds dearest to her, specifically one special person. But when her precious people are in danger from forces outside of Konoha and even within Konoha, She must sacrifice herself for them, right? Well, maybe not, if a certain black haired Uchiha has anything to say about it. Fem-Naruto x Sasuke Fic, Fluff!
1. Chapter 1

This was just a small little one-shot that I had written a while back. I revised it a little, and published it here. However, if anyone wants me to continue it, that would be just dandy. I have a few ideas as to where this story could go. Thank you!

 **Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO**

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Wind blew slowly over a flat green field, brushing up against blades of grass and leaves in the trees. Night had covered the sky, and the moon cast its dull, calming light. Lying under the stars, was a group of four ninja. Three of which were asleep while the other kept watch.

The ninja that was still awake gazed into a small makeshift fireplace with glowing embers, remnants of the fire that had once been there. The ninja, was Naruko Uzumaki, a young genin, determined to prove herself to the world. She was a small petite girl with a cute little face that held whisker birthmarks. Her long blond hair cascaded down her back, stopping a bit short of her hips, and crystal blue eyes shined in the dark. These very eyes filled with warmth as she observed the rest of her team sleeping. This was her family.

She looked at the biggest person laying down, her sensei Kakashi Hatake, a man with gravity defying hair, and a reputation of an A-rank ninja. This man was someone she could trust with her life, someone who could help her become a better ninja, while still depending on him as support. She didn't mind some of his strange quirks like being late, or constantly reading some inappropriate novels in front of his own team of twelve year olds. He was a wonderful sensei who taught her a lot, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Naruko then shifted her gaze towards another sleeping ninja. Sakura Haruno, a feisty pink haired girl with strength to reinforce her anger problems. Despite always hitting and scolding the blond, Naruko figured that this young girl was probably her first female friend ever. This meant a lot to Naruko, as she found out through her childhood that having friends is one of the most enjoyable aspects of life.

Lastly Naruko looked towards her final teammate, Sasuke Uchiha. Her lips formed a small smile at the thought of this young boy. When he first joined Team 7, she had thought he was a dark, narcissistic loner, only interested in becoming powerful, even at the cost of abandoning his teammates. Her view changed after her very first mission with him. While she was down, Sasuke leapt to her side and took multiple hits from senbon needles, an almost fatal attack, simply to protect her. She was surprised by the action, and decided to get to know the boy better.

After the chuunin exams and the attack on the leaf a few weeks ago, Naruko had learned that Sasuke had a curse mark placed on him by the evil snake sannin, Orochimaru. Despite, the awesome power that the mark gave him, Sasuke chose to refrain from using such an evil power. Something that Naruko had respected Sasuke greatly for.

Now here they were, gathered as a family, and camping out after completing a mission that was a little ways away from her home village. She was to keep a lookout for a couple hours then wake up Sakura for her shift, however she never planned on doing so.

See, Naruko was a quiet girl growing up, always alone, and always afraid. She longed for a friend, even just an acquaintance, however it was because she held the Kyuubi, a mighty beast that had attacked her village twelve years ago, that adults and children avoided her. It's not that the children knew of her secret. It was forbidden for the adults to tell them, however, that didn't stop the adults from telling their children that she was bad news, something they should not hang around. She figured that because of the way she was brought up, that she treasured the people that were close to her, and would sacrifice her health so they wouldn't have to struggle, even over something as trivial as a night watch.

Yes, Naruko decided, she would not wake up Sakura, or any of her team. They needed the rest, and who was she to interrupt them. It didn't matter to her if she was tired.

"Idiot" A whisper pierced the silence of the night.

Naruko looked at the source of the voice, slightly shocked that someone on her team was up. Sasuke. The boy sat up and rubbed his eyes from sleep, and glared at the blond.

"Why aren't you waking Sakura? It was her shift almost an hour ago". He whispered with annoyance at Naruko.

Naruko deciding to act clueless in the situation began to scratch the back of head.

"Ah...is it time already? I must have forgot." She whispered to the boy.

With a sigh the boy stood up and walked over to the tree that Naruko had been leaning on, and plopped himself down beside her. He crossed his fingers together and held them over his mouth as if thinking of something to say.

"Ne...Sasuke, it's almost daylight anyway. I can handle a couple more hours." She said quietly.

Dark obsidian eyes glanced toward the small girl as Sasuke was trying to understand what was up with his dope of a teammate.

"Hn...You should sleep, wouldn't want you slow us down tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll wake Sa-." Naruko whispered before Sasuke grabbed her arm, halting her speech.

"Don't, it'd be a bother to wake her up, I'll watch" Sasuke said.

Naruko nodded and tilted her head against the tree and closed her eyes. She wasn't going to admit it to Sasuke, but she was extremely tired. Although she assumed he might already know that since she didn't try to argue with him. Then, the girl had a thought. This was one of the only times in which she could speak to Sasuke privately, something she had always wanted to do, but never found the time.

"Sasuke...we are friends right?" she asked while keeping her eyes closed.

"Go to sleep…" Was the Uchiha's quiet response.

Silence reigned over the night and Naruko was a little disheartened at the young genin's response.

"Yes"

Naruko's eyes opened slightly and she tilted her head towards her teammate who was right beside her. She smiled and stared at the boy with happiness in her eyes. That was until she saw the curse mark resting on his shoulder, with another seal surrounding it.

"If I asked you something personal, would you answer?" Naruko whispered.

"Depends."

"D-does it hurt...your curse mark?" The blond asked.

Sasuke shifted his gaze to his female teammate, and Naruko suddenly found herself staring at the ground, not wanting to have eye contact with a person whom she just asked a sensitive question.

"Not really... it used to hurt before Kakashi-sensei had added the second seal. Now...it just feels like a heavy burden." Sasuke said, surprising himself with how open he was being with his idiot rival, but in this situation, he could tell the Naruko wasn't just talking to talk. He assumed she was just wanting to know him better.

"I know the feeling." Naruko whispered to herself, hoping that Sasuke hadn't heard what she said. She was too busy thinking of how relatable Sasuke's situation was, that she had said something she shouldn't have.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his teammate, slightly upset at her response to his description of the curse mark. How could she possibly know what it felt like? Was she just trying to comfort him? He didn't need her pity.

"Hn...Don't say something you don't mean to make me feel better. I don't need that." He whispered harshly.

Naruko had been stunned by his words, and also slightly hurt. She could feel his anger laced with each whispered word, she wanted to let him know that she wasn't just making stuff up.

"I- I do know...I-" She whispered trying to decide if she could trust her teammate with a secret that she has kept for a long time now, even if she unknowingly kept it for most of her life.

"How?" Sasuke growled. Naruko winced at his tone. Clearly Sasuke had been upset.

She decided lift up the bottom of her shirt just barely exposing her flat stomach. Sasuke looked away from the scene slightly blushing at what he thought Naruko was doing. A blue glow made Sasuke look back towards Naruko as he saw that she held her shirt just below the center of her chest, and he could see a glowing blue seal, that circled around her belly button.

"What?" Sasuke asked slightly stunned.

Naruko placed her shirt back down as the seal faded away, melting back into her tan skin.

"I, I also have a seal on me... It, holds something evil and… and I just wanted to tell somebody...anybody." Naruko stated whispering.

"I didn't know…" Sasuke said, surprised that his teammate had trusted him with her secret.

"What is held within the seal?" Sasuke asked.

Naruko looked away from the boy and gazed back towards the glowing embers in the fire pit.

"I can't say...Maybe in the future…" She whispered with a saddened tone to her voice.

The two remained silent for quite some time after that discussion, not knowing what to say. That is until Sasuke broke the silence.

"You know, you and I, we're different from others our age... You never had parents and I lost mine, and we both carry large burdens on our shoulders. We should look out for each other more often." He whispered, hoping that Naruko had just gone to sleep. However he heard a deep happy sigh from the girl beside him.

"I would like that a lot." She said quietly, feeling her cheeks warm at what the black haired Uchiha had said. Happiness consumed her thoughts as she leaned onto his shoulder with her eyes closed.

"Oi! Get off! That doesn't mean you can sleep on me!" Sasuke whispered harshly. His only response was Naruko's soft breathing as she had already fallen asleep.

"Oi!"

This was her family.

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Yeah so that's that! Leave a comment or review if you liked it or didn't like it. Anything that can improve my skills as an author would be greatly appreciated, and if a lot of people want me to continue this story, just PM me or like I said earlier, leave a comment! I will still be writing my other story "The Runner of Konoha" so this story won't interfere with my time on that one. I think I can handle writing both if necessary. ANYWAY, BYE BYE!


	2. Chapter 2

I love all of your reviews and comments! I decided I will continue this story! Please let me know what you guys think of this chapter, I'm nervous that I may have screwed up a perfectly good one-shot by extending it. Although, I do like this story, it's really fun to write about. Also, I've changed the summary of the story so if anyone wants a little hint at how the story will progress, they can look at that.

Anyway, thank you so much for your support. I'm excited to see what you all think, I'm trying to keep characters as natural as possible so it seems like a more realistic story, if anyone notices that one of the characters isn't acting like they normally would, let me know! THANKS!

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto :(**

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"Naruko watch out!" The blonde haired girl heard Sakura scream.

Crystal blue eyes widened as they looked upward, seeing her sensei in front of the beaming sun, spiraling downwards toward her with his fist raised. She smirked and leapt to the side, causing her mentor's fist to slam into the ground. Dirt covered smoke clouded the training ground blurring Naruto's and Sakura's vision.

A blue glove fist suddenly burst through the smoke, aimed for Naruko's stomach. She grit her teeth and placed her hands in a 'x' formation to try and block the attack, however, that wasn't necessary as her collar had been yanked backward. She whirled her head around, seeing her other teammate Sasuke pull her back and away from harm.

The Uchiha smirked and flashed his eyes upward. Naruko nodded, getting the signal, and Sasuke intertwined his fingers, placing them downwards. Naruko put her foot in Sasuke's hands and he launched her into the air.

Kakashi, following his fist, flew out of dust, expecting to find his blonde student, instead finding his black haired student. Sasuke launched out a kick, causing Kakashi to block with his forearm. The silver haired ninja then used his free hand to grip the ankle of Sasuke's extended leg. Sasuke twisted his body and placed his hands on the ground and launching out another leg to kick the older ninja.

Kakashi, once again caught the leg, and soon realized that Sasuke was attacking the same way he did in the bell exam. Choosing to avoid the situation, Kakashi launched himself backwards, his ankle however, caught something. He turned his head to the side, and his eyes widened as he saw Sakura smirking while holding a taught ninja wire connected to a tree on the opposite side of the field.

The silver haired ninja's back hit the ground with a 'thud', then a strange shadow covered his head and he gazed at the sky. Naruko, followed by four copies of herself were falling through the air, of course grinning wildly.

'These genin?!' Kakashi thought as the five Narukos slammed into his body, causing a dust explosion.

When the smoke cleared, the figure that was once Kakashi, was now a wooden log. The three genin's eyes widened as their sensei had managed to avoid their collaborating attack.

They grouped up in the center, trying to spot their sly sensei, only for him to appear in a 'poof' of smoke. His one eye was closed, somehow revealing that he was smiling and he clapped.

"You three did an excellent job, too bad I'm just a little too good." He chuckled. The three let out a defeated sigh before looking back up at their sensei with determination.

"Let's try again!" Sakura yelled out first.

"Yeah! This time we'll win!" Naruko agreed.

"Hn." Sasuke smirked.

All three of the genin began to fall into a battle ready stance. Kakashi chuckled before placing his hands up.

"Ma Ma...Let's call it a day shall we? I was thinking we should have a team dinner. You know, bonding." Kakashi smiled.

The three genin were suddenly grinning all together, before Naruko sprinted off towards her favorite ramen stand. The other three ninja sighed and followed the girl, knowing it was pointless to argue against her.

"Does she ever not eat ramen sensei?" Sakura chuckled.

"Doesn't seem like it." Kakashi replied.

Sasuke remained silent as they made their way after the blonde girl.

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Later into the night, the streets of Konoha had settled down, civilians had head into their warm homes, ninja had returned to their sleeping quarters to prepare for upcoming missions the next day, and ANBU patrol units had begun to watch over the village.

Of course, Team Seven was still sitting in a warmly lit ramen stand, happily conversing with each other, and the respected ramen cooks, who had allowed them to stay much longer than they should have.

"I swear one more mission with us chasing that demon cat and I'm gonna get Kiba and his clan to hunt her down!" Sakura exclaimed, wildly throwing her hands in the air. Naruko, Sasuke, and Kakashi all nodded and laughed.

"Oh!" Sakura jumped out of her seat, looking at the clock on the wall. "My parents are gonna kill me! I didn't realize it was so late! Bye guys!" Sakura waved before sprinting off into the dark night. "Thanks for dinner Kakashi-sensei!"

The other ninja waved goodbye before Kakashi too, stood up, making his way out of the ramen stand. "Well, I should head out too, I promised Guy that he and I would race around Konoha, have to get up bright and early." He waved at Naruko and Sasuke before stepping out.

The two gennin looked at each other, confused as Kakashi-sensei had rarely ever agreed to some of Guy's wild challenges. Eventually both of them shrugged their shoulders before getting out of their seats.

"Good bye Ayame-chan! Old man! Thanks for letting us stay." Naruko yelled behind her, Sasuke turned to face the cooks and nodded slightly, giving them his thanks.

"Come back anytime!" The two cooks replied back.

Out and in the streets, Naruko took a deep, cool breath of air before turning to her teammate. "Well I guess I'm gonna go home too..." She said.

Sasuke scratched at the back of his head, before mumbling something that Naruko didn't quite pick up.

"Ne, what was that Sasuke?" She asked, leaning closer to the boy with her face turned so her ear was closer to him.

Sasuke glanced towards the ground, a blush spreading across his face. Luckily the streets were dark enough that his blonde teammate couldn't see it. "I said, let me walk you home." His voice barely a whisper, however Naruko heard, and she too couldn't stop a slight blush from appearing on her face.

Not trusting herself to speak properly, she instead opted to nod her head slightly before turning to face the direction of her house and began to walk that way, Sasuke quickly hurried and walked beside her.

The two walked in silence, not really knowing what to say, well, Naruko didn't know what to say. Sasuke on the other hand was just trying to focus on keeping his steps steady and not look like he was having trouble walking next to his teammate. Honestly why was he so nervous!

Arriving at a beat up, rusty old apartment, Sasuke had to refrain from covering his nose and mouth, due to the intense smell of rotting garbage. The two walked up rusty metal stairs and through a hallway with blinking, half-lit light bulbs. Then Sasuke saw Naruko stop in front of an old wooden door which seemed to be made of rotting wood. The blonde gennin slammed her shoulder into the door, while turning the knob, trying to un-jam her horrible door. When the door finally gave in, she stumbled forwards into her apartment.

Steadying herself, she turned around to thank Sasuke for walking her home, since that had been the first time someone had offered to do that in her entire life.

"Thank you Sasuke, I'll um, I'll see you tomorrow at the training grounds." She said in a whisper, so that she wouldn't wake any neighbors beside her apartment. Sasuke however, wasn't focused on what she was saying. He was focused on the inside of her apartment, looking past Naruko, there was barely any furniture, and what furniture was there was broken or stained. Her wooden floors look crooked and dangerous if someone wasn't wearing shoes.

"Idiot." Sasuke said, before charging past Naruko and into her apartment.

"Hey what do you think you're doing?" Naruko said, placing her hands on her hips, clearly annoyed with the sudden intrusion.

Sasuke looked back at the girl with a hidden warmth in his eyes, something Naruko couldn't notice. "Get some pairs of clothes, you're staying with me." He all but commanded.

Naruko's eyes widened at the forcefulness of Sasuke's tone, but saw that the young teen was very serious. She thought about kicking him out and telling the boy that she didn't need help with her living situation, but even she had to admit that she lived in a disgusting, horrible apartment. She really couldn't call this place home.

Just nodding her head, Sasuke was surprised as the blonde walked into what he assumed was her room before coming back out a couple minutes later with a small sack thrown over her shoulders.

"Good come on." Sasuke said, extending his hand to his teammate. Naruko blushed slightly before placing her hand on Sasuke's. Without realizing, Sasuke gripped her hand and walked out of the apartment and towards the Uchiha compound.

Naruko gazed amazingly at the enormous stone gate, bearing the Uchiha's clan symbol. She had never seen what the Uchiha compound had looked like. Her expectations were blown out of the water as she saw many exquisitely beautiful wooden homes. She frowned, realizing the only thing that was missing was life in the homes.

She glanced towards Sasuke, looking up at his face, which seemed to be staring impassively at the road in front of them. The Uchiha compound seemed beautiful, but Naruko knew that it must have been much more beautiful when there had been people living within the compound. Sasuke must really miss everyone.

It was then that Naruko realized that Sasuke had truly lost more than she ever did. Sure she never knew what love was like, or what childhood friends felt like, but Sasuke had, and he lost it all.

Sasuke caught Naruko looking at him and parted his mouth, thinking of something to say. "How come you're looking at me?" He asked.

Naruko glanced down to the ground, her cheeks felt warm as she was trying to decide whether she should tell Sasuke that she had been thinking about what he lost.

Finding some form of confidence in herself, Naruko looked back up towards the expecting eyes of the Uchiha. "I was just thinking, I got your back." She said as her eyes closed and her mouth formed a wide excited smile.

Sasuke didn't really understand what she meant, but found himself smiling anyway. They arrived at his particular home and walked up the concrete steps.

"Here we are, I'll show you to the guest room." Sasuke said.

Naruko nodded excitedly, as she could already tell that there was something more special about Sasuke's house than any of the other homes that she had seen. He opened the door and led her inside.

Neither noticed their hands were still intertwined.

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Thanks again for reading, and don't forget to Review or comment! I love all of your messages and criticism! See you next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the latest chapter of "A Family to Call My Own"! I hope you all enjoy it! The hardest part for me is to produce long chapters, but I'm going to try and extend them a little more, chapter by chapter, also to people who were wondering what point in the series this story took place, it takes place right after the Chuunin exams, but before Itachi and Kisame show up...hint hint. Sasuke may leave konoha, or may not, we'll see. Anyway, enjoy and leave a comment or review, I love reading them!**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN NARUTO :(**

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The next day, Sasuke rolled over in his bed, his black hair disheveled from the long hours of deep sleep that he had gotten the night before. If felt good knowing that he wasn't living in his giant home, alone. He sat up slowly, and began to rub his eyes so that he could get adjusted to the light that was shining brightly in his room. Looking at the clock he saw that he and Naruko still had a couple of hours before they were supposed to go train with Sakura and Kakashi. He wondered if Naruko was still asleep. Was she a deep sleeper?

His thoughts came to a sudden halt when he smelled something dangerously foreign in his house. He sniffed the air again before bolting out of his bed and swinging open his door. He smelled smoke.

Sprinting across the wooden floor, he threw open the door that led to the guest room, hoping to find Naruko, however, all he saw was a sleeping mat on the ground, with her sack of clothes next to them, the bed in the room remained completely untouched. This was weird Sasuke concluded.

He turned around and ran towards the kitchen, and there he saw it. Naruko pacing all around the kitchen, an apron covering her pajamas as she stirred a large bowl of...batter? He ran to one of the pans that had been the source of the smoke and saw that she was trying to make pancakes, but hadn't flipped the one on the pan.

"What are you doing!?" He yelled as he forced the spatula under the burnt pancake before removing it from the pan all together.

Naruko stopped her determined and messy process of mixing the batter, and turned towards her teammate. Naruko smiled widely at Sasuke.

"Oh you're up, I was making us breakfast." She grinned.

Sasuke stood there completely shocked, noticing her apron was covered in flour and egg, even her cheek had some batter on it! This girl was making a complete mess in his home!

"Do you even know how to make pancakes?" Sasuke asked.

Naruko put her finger to her chin in thought. "No I don't think so, but I remember that Jiji had told me how to once and I figured it couldn't be that hard."

Sasuke sighed before washing a rag and cleaning the batter covered counters, and then proceeded to push Naruko out of the kitchen and to a table.

"You really are an idiot." He said as he forced her to sit at the large wooden table.

Naruko frowned as she sat down. "I was just trying to help...and I don't like you calling me that."

Sasuke smiled softly at the girl in front of him before moving back into the kitchen. "I'll make breakfast okay."

Naruko sat in stunned silence as she could hear Sasuke mixing the batter in the kitchen and pouring the batter onto the pan that she had been using. Sasuke was determined now to fix a much better breakfast than the blonde haired girl had before, at least she got all the ingredients right. His thought process was stopped as he heard a light 'pop' before looking at his toaster.

There, he saw slabs of thin meat sticking out of the toaster. The top halves that hadn't been in the toaster at all were still raw, while the bottom halves were burnt to a crisp. He felt a vein pop on his forehead.

"Did you put bacon in the toaster?!"

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Naruko took a bite of a lightly browned pancake that had been topped with butter and dipped in a light brown syrup. Her face beamed as she chewed on the soft piece of food and let out a little 'MMmm' sound.

Sasuke sat on the other side of the table, calmly eating his pancakes, while trying not to chuckle at the strange event that had happened just half an hour ago. Naruko living in his house had sure livened up the place, and it made him realize how lonely his house had been before.

"Ah Sasuke, this is so good dattebayo!" Naruko said.

Sasuke simply nodded his head before placing another bite into his own mouth. He wondered what exactly he should talk about with Naruko? He felt as if he should know her, her likes and dislikes, but when he thought about it, he would have a hard time coming up with answers for those. Of course she liked ramen, but surely that wasn't the only thing she liked, if so, she was the biggest idiot he had ever met. Then another question popped into his head, why hadn't she slept in the guest bed?

"Naruko..." The blonde's head snapped upward, eagerly meeting Sasuke's eyes with her own. "Why didn't you sleep in the guest bed?" Sasuke asked. Perhaps this would give him a better insight as to how Naruko worked.

Naruko began to rub the back of her head, and chuckled sheepishly. "Ah well, I thought the floor was more comfortable." She said.

Then Sasuke caught it, something about Naruko that he didn't know before. He realized that Naruko was a horrible liar, she always scratched the back of her head and chuckled. He also noticed her eyes would avoid him and rather gaze at the ground.

"You're lying." The black haired Uchiha stated.

Naruko's eyes flashed upwards connecting with his own, and a small glare marring her face. "Nuh-uh, I really like the ground more!" She said.

Sasuke quickly got up out of his chair and walked over to where Naruko was sitting. His tall form shadowing her own as he glared down at the blonde in front of him. He didn't like Naruko lying, and he especially didn't like her refusing to tell the truth.

"Tell me why you didn't sleep on the guest bed." He stated again, more seriously than the first time.

"It's not even that big of a deal." Naruko mumbled.

"Naruko" Sasuke said, raising his tone, as if he were talking to a child, which in some ways, Naruko probably was.

Said blonde was shifting uncomfortably in her seat, wishing to be somewhere else rather than sitting under the intense gaze of the Uchiha. It was uncomfortable, someone caring about what she did. She couldn't remember a time when someone was questioning her so hard about telling the truth.

"I didn't deserve it." She mumbled.

Sasuke's eyes hardened when he heard her meek reply.

"What do you mean?" He asked, more suspicious about his teammate than ever before.

"That bed belonged to one of your clan members, it would be insulting to sleep somewhere that your family had slept, I don't deserve to sleep there." Naruko said, her voice trailing off towards the end, but Sasuke had heard it all.

The young Uchiha had learned one more thing about Naruko, something he would have to fix. Naruko, clearly thought very little of herself, almost as if she had hardly any worth at all. If she felt unworthy to sleep in a place that someone from the Uchiha clan had, Sasuke would have to make her see that she didn't need to think so low about herself.

"Idi-." Sasuke was about to say, but caught himself as he realized calling her an idiot, probably didn't help her self-worth. "Naru, that room you slept in was a guest room, I don't think anyone has ever slept there. Besides, even if someone had, I'm sure neither they, nor I would ever mind."

Naruko raised her eyes to look back at the young boy in wonder, before nodding her head and standing up. "Thank you Sasuke." She smiled, then in an awkward fashion, the girl gently wrapped her arms around Sasuke in what he assumed to be a weak, yet very grateful hug.

In fact, Sasuke found himself enjoying her gentle embrace and he too wrapped his arms around her.

"Now, let's go meet Kakashi-sensei and Sakura" Sasuke said as two genin separated. Naruko nodded and raced off towards her bedroom to change out of her blue pajamas and into her ninja gear.

Sasuke smiled and walked, in a slower fashion, towards his room. He would have to continue to pay close attention to Naruko. He learned that she was very caring about others, but lacked in caring about herself. He would just have to watch over her and make sure she never felt weak or undeserving. After all, he told her that he would look after her, and she needed it.

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'What's so good about Sasuke?' Naruko grumbled as she kicked a rock across a dirt path. When Sasuke, Sakura, and she had appeared to the training grounds, Kakashi had said that starting today he would train us individually, beginning with Sasuke. In Kakashi's words 'this would give us time to break away from our teamwork and improve our individual skills'...but still, Naruko didn't like the feeling of separating her team, her family. It didn't seem right after they had been doing so well together.

"Naruko!" A pink haired girl ran up behind her excitedly.

"Ah Sakura, what did you want?" Naruko asked as she turned towards her teammate.

The pink haired girl leaned over, putting her hands on her knees, breathing heavily as she had been looking for Naruko for a long time. Catching her breath, Sakura straightened upward.

"Well, I was wondering, since we have the day off and we aren't the best of friends, would you like to go shopping with me?" Sakura asked.

Naruko slightly recoiled at the thought of 'shopping' but thought over what the pink girl had said. They really weren't as close as they should be for a team, and what better way than to spend time together on their way off.

"Eh...I guess I'll come, but I'm not really a fan of shopping." Naruko said sheepishly.

"That's okay, you just haven't experienced shopping the way I have!"

Naruko gulped as she was suddenly being dragged by Sakura into the village shopping districts.

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Naruko fell onto her sleeping mat, completely exhausted. Who knew shopping could be so...tiring? Shop after shop, Sakura had dragged Naruko to every clothing store in the village trying on different outfits that she wouldn't wear that often anyway. Of course, Naruko just watched, she felt no reason to ty on such fluffy, soft, glitter-filled outfits when she would never use such things in her line of work.

A 'slam' of a wooden door caught her attention, however her body was completely shut down, so she sleepily gazed at the door of her room. Hearing light footsteps in the wooden hallway, Naruko knew that Sasuke had returned from his training session with Kakashi-sensei.

His footsteps grew closer to her door, and she gazed upward at the young black haired Uchiha as he opened her room door. He looked like he had been through hell. She noticed multiple wounds, most likely from kunai or shuriken, and his outfit seemed to have torn in multiple places.

"Have you been here all day?" Sasuke casually asked, as if he didn't realize how messy he looked.

Naruko sat upwards, blinking owlishly before shaking her head. "Sakura had wanted to spend time with me...She took me shopping." Naruko shivered in disgust at the end of her sentence.

"Have you eaten?" He asked.

Naruko was about to say that she wasn't hungry, however, her stomach had to make a slight rumbling sound, giving her away instantly. Her cheeks reddened at such an action. Curse her stupid stomach.

Sasuke extended his hand to the young blonde girl, "Let's go, I have nothing in the house so we'll have to go somewhere to eat."

She gripped his hand and flung herself forward, out the door, suddenly finding a hidden energy within herself. The idea of having ramen was consuming her thoughts. As if knowing what she was thinking, Sasuke yelled out behind her. "No Ramen!"

Naruko froze, a horrified look on her face. What did he mean no ramen? What else could she possibly eat?

Sasuke gripped her hand as he passed her frozen body, leading her outside of his home and into the streets of Konoha. Sasuke noticed that her face was still stuck in a fearful expression and he sighed in irritation.

"Would you quit that, ramen isn't the only food in Konoha. You'll try something different tonight." He told her sternly.

Naruko snapped out of her expression before grinning and scratching the back of her head, "Ah sorry Sasuke, I'm not used to anything other than ramen." She said.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as Naruko did her awkward routine of scratching the back of her head and chuckling. Was there more to her addiction to ramen than he thought? Did she have an allergy or something?

The two genin continued to walk into the village, with Naruko being surprisingly quiet for not being able to get her way, but Sasuke couldn't figure out why. Anyhow, he decided that he would go to the barbeque steakhouse that seemed to be very popular amongst young ninja teams and civilians.

When they arrived her really knew something was up as Naruko stopped walking besides him and walked more behind him. What was up with her? Was she nervous? It wasn't like this was a date or anything. Sasuke mentally froze. Did she think it was a date?

Deciding to not ask her about it, he walked towards the host. "Table for two." He said plainly.

The host nodded. "Why certainly If you would just follow m-." The Host stopped talking when he noticed the blonde girl, hidden behind the Uchiha. "Actually, I'm sorry but we are full for the night."

Sasuke's eyes widened as the host suddenly changed his tune, Sasuke even saw open tables within the restaurant. "What about those tables?" He asked, clearly annoyed.

"I'm terribly sorry but those are all reserved." The host bowed his head at the young boy, but silently glared at the girl behind him. Naruko's head drooped as she wanted to look away from such menacing eyes. The girl lightly tugged at Sasuke's shirt.

"Sasuke, let's just go." She whispered.

Sasuke nodded in a huff and turned around, walking away quickly while Naruko followed behind him.

Sasuke's patience had been tested multiple times that night. Every restaurant that he had been too had either been suddenly booked, closed, or full!? Never in his life had he been unable to find a restaurant in the middle of the week like tonight.

He eventually gave up and got two strawberry crepes for himself and Naruko, while they sat on a hill overlooking the park. The sun had begun to set over the horizon, emitting a dull orange glow around the village.

Even though not finding a suitable restaurant had been annoying, Sasuke felt suddenly calm. The silence would have been relaxing if he had been by himself, but he knew he wasn't alone. Naruko sat right next to him, being completely silent, and not even touching her crepe, despite her stomach growling every couple of minutes. What was up with her?

"Oi! Aren't you hungry? Do you not like crepes?" Sasuke said, snapping Naruko from her musings.

Naruko's eyes widened at his question and mentally scolded herself, she wasn't appreciating the food that Sasuke had bought for her. How rude of her! Naruko took a larger than normal bite out of her crepe, which caused some cream to stick to the corners of her mouth.

"No, it's really good Sasuke thank you!" She said quickly, as if she had done something wrong.

Sasuke frowned. Naruko had been acting weird ever since she had been told that they weren't going for ramen. Is that all she could eat? Then something came across Sasuke's mind, causing him to freeze.

Was that all she could eat, because that's the only thing she could buy? He thought back to the glares that he thought had been directed at himself when asking too eat at a restaurant, but he suddenly remembered that the glares had been sent to Naruko, who was right behind him. 'Did this have anything to do with that seal she showed me on out last mission?' Sasuke thought.

"Naruko, those restaurants..." Sasuke started, but found himself unable to form the words to finish.

He saw her nod her head, understanding what he meant. Her light blue eyes swiveled to look directly at his own black eyes. There, Sasuke could see all her pain and sadness. Naruko's eyes were watering, ready to spill tears at a moment's notice, and her lip had been quivering.

Never in his life had Sasuke hated the village more than just now. The way they treated this little blonde girl seemed unfair to him, evil even. It was clear to him now that Naruko, despite seeming like a happy, energetic, clueless orphan, she was really a sad and lonely little girl with too many insecurities about herself. 'No wonder she tries to please other so much' Sasuke thought, 'her seal, her burden had destroyed any chance of her eating at restaurants.' and if he could guess, it stopped her from having friends and loved ones.

Without any words he suddenly gripped her with his arms and brought her close to himself in a deep, forceful hug. Naruko's watery eyes widened as she was suddenly being held in Sasuke's arms. She guessed it was his way of saying that he understood, and that he was going to support her. Naruko longed for that to be true.

He held her for the longest time, the crepes in their hands began to get soggy, yet neither of them cared at the moment.

Naruko lifted her head to look up at Sasuke, his cold black eyes, filled with warmth as they made contact with her own blue ones. Sasuke was mesmerized by Naruko, her cheeks were blushing, big blue eyes stared up at him, tear streaks had formed on her face, and her hair was slightly disheveled. Sasuke also couldn't help but notice the cream from her crepe, still glued to the corner of her tiny little mouth.

Sasuke, unable to stop himself, began to lean forward slowly. 'If anyone needs love, it's her' He thought as he felt his lips only an inch away from her own. Naruko sat, frozen as Sasuke had begun to lean forward. Her lips slightly parted, however she sat completely still, her heart pounding in her chest.

Without any further warning, she felt it. His lips, lightly pushing on her own. Her wide blue eyes fluttered closed as she embraced her first meaningful kiss. 'At least I know that one person cares about me.' She thought.

When they parted, Sasuke smirked at her, and Naruko felt herself blushing under his gaze, then her eyes widened when she felt something warm lick the corners of her mouth. Her blush redden ten-fold as she realized that Sasuke had licked up some cream that she had somehow gotten on her face.

"D-don't do that." She whispered, distraught and embarrassed.

"Hn." Sasuke smirked once more as he pulled her towards himself. He would definitely have to keep an eye on Naruko, after all...she was his now.

XXXXX

 **I couldn't stop smiling when I wrote this! I suppose that I may have rushed Naruko's and Sasuke's relationship, but they are both sort of desperate for love, especially Naruko, so I thought it would fit! Leave a comment or review about this chapter or the whole story! I love everyone's support, and I love this story! BYE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Man it's been a while. I'm extremely sorry that It took so long to come out with a new chapter. I'm in the process of moving, so that's been really difficult, but no excuse! Nothing sucks more than an** **inconsistent** **author. However, I won't be able to promise** **consistency and I apologize for that, but things are getting very busy. Anyway this chapter includes Kakashi x Fem Naruto (Teacher student moment). I liked writing it, and hope to bring team 7 together as a whole. Don't worry, romantically it will still be strictly Sasuke X Fem Naruto. Please review, comment, tell me what you think! I love all the messages, and I'm thankful that many of you care so much about this story. It really brings me joy to write each chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto :(**

 **XXXXX**

"Oi! Naruko!" A distinctly annoyed yell echoed through the hallways of the Uchiha mansion.

Naruko's eyes widened as she quickly shot up out of her bed, her startled reaction causing her body to flip onto the ground, landing with a loud grunt. She groaned and sat up while rubbing her head, hidden behind disheveled blonde hair. She cursed under her breath before getting up and heading towards the bathroom.

"Naruko!" The voice called once again.

Said blonde was becoming increasingly annoyed at the voice and decided to yell back.

"I'm up!" She screamed.

Changing out of her blue pajamas and into her orange and blue tracksuit, Naruko quickly ran out of the Uchiha guest room and past into the kitchen. There she saw Sasuke in a cooking apron, preparing an eggs and toast.

The black haired Uchiha gazed at his roommate with an annoyed expression and when his coal black eyes connected with Naruko's blue ones, Naruko immediately looked away, a blush adorning her face.

She didn't understand why she was so flustered around Sasuke ever since the night that they kissed two days ago. Whenever Naruko saw him, she felt like she had to say something, but nothing came to mind.

"G-good morning." She whispered, holding her sleeve to her mouth, trying to hide from any sort of judgement she may receive. Sasuke gave her a small smile while nodding his head, his own way of greeting her.

She sat the kitchen table while Sasuke walked over and placed the breakfast he had made onto her plate. She nodded in thanks before scarfing down the meal. Sasuke sighed as he watched her eat like a maniac, hunching over her food as if she were in a rush. Honestly, her training session wasn't happening for at least another hour and a half.

"Slow down, there's no need to rush." He scolded.

Naruko stopped midway of putting another bite of eggs into her mouth before blushing and gently placing the food in her mouth, chewing slowly. She couldn't believe how weird she was around Sasuke. She needed to talk to him about what happened a couple nights ago. Were they a couple? Were they dating? Naruko had no idea about those sorts of things.

"Sasuke…" she spoke hesitantly.

The young Uchiha locked his eyes with her own. "Hm?"

"W-well, I was wondering….ya know…"Naruko stuttered, finding it harder and harder to talk to her rival.

Sasuke mentally sighed as he figured that she was wondering about the night they kissed. He had to admit, even he was confused as to where their relationship should go from there. He was just thankful that he could hide his conflicted thoughts much better than Naruko. His focus went back to Naruko as she spoke again.

"Are we…um…are we a c-couple?" She asked.

Sasuke sat still in his chair, pondering about what she said. Were they a couple?

Clearing his throat, Sasuke said, "Did you want to be?"

Naruko averted her eyes to the floor and covered her face with her sleeve. "I don't know, I'm not very good with this kinda stuff. It's embarrassing. Ya know." She spoke in mumbles

'Cute' Sasuke suddenly thought, before blushing at what he had just thought. He was at least thankful that his blonde teammate wasn't looking at him so she wouldn't be able to tell.

"Then let's just be ourselves." Sasuke proposed. "If we become closer then so be it."

Naruko pulled down her sleeve, eyeing the black haired teen, before nodding her head in agreement. "I like that, but you at least need to stop acting like a jerk all the time."

Sasuke felt his eye twitch slightly. "What's that supposed to mean?" He growled as he stood up aggressively gripping the table, with a pout on his face.

Naruko too, stood up and slammed her hands onto the table, glaring at the boy only mere inches from her face, her temper blinding her from his proximity. "You know, you always tell me to do things!" She said.

"That's because you're a baka sometimes!" He replied.

Minutes past as they glared into each other's eyes, lightning shooting between them. Neither person was backing down from their stance until Naruko sent out a quick jab to Sasuke's stomach. The Uchiha doubled over and began coughing.

Naruko pointed and laughed at the boy, however, Sasuke used that opportunity to tackle the blonde girl to the ground. The two gennin rolled around on the wooden floors, trying to fight each other in a small wrestling match.

Sasuke ended up overpowering the much smaller girl and straddled over her, pinning her arms with his own. Sasuke and Naruko were both breathing heavily and Naruko felt her defeat when she tried to struggle but ultimately failed.

They stayed on the ground for a couple minutes before a small laugh made its way out of Sasuke's mouth. Naruko's blue eyes widened as she witnessed the dark haired emo laugh for the first time in her life.

"Look at that, at least you aren't nervous anymore." Sasuke chuckled. He found it funny that only moments past him recommending that they act like themselves, the two instantly start fighting.

Naruko, realizing the truth in Sasuke's words, began to chuckle as well. Sasuke was right, she didn't feel awkward or weird, she felt like herself.

Sasuke, noticing that he hadn't laughed like that in a long time, began spacing out, trying to remember a time long ago when he had been able to laugh, until Naruko spoke.

"Um Sasuke? Could you get off?" Naruko said, slightly blushing.

Sasuke, realizing that he was still laying on his teammate shot directly upward, mumbling a small apology. Naruko sat upwards as well and began to get up, only for Sasuke to grab her forearm and tug her back down.

"Wha?" She said before Sasuke's lips were upon her own. Her crystal blue eyes widening before fluttering closed. She liked the feeling of Sasuke's lips, they weren't rough like she had thought they were, but instead they were gentle and soft.

When they parted, Sasuke rested his forehead against her own. "I promise I'll try to be less of a jerk, okay?" He whispered.

Naruko, feeling calmed and content nodded her head before whispering, "Thank you, Sasuke."

The two stood up and Sasuke walked Naruko to his front door. "See ya Sasuke!" Naruko cheerfully yelled as she walked out of the house and towards the training field.

"Hn, Have fun with Kakashi." He replied before shutting the door.

XXXXX

Within the Hokage's office, three elderly people sat in complete silence. The morning sun was beaming through the windows, however the atmosphere of the room itself felt dark and cold. Two of the elders shifted uncomfortably in their seats, while the third one continued to glare harshly.

"Homura, Koharu, I think you both need to think more clearly on the issue at hand." Spoke the disgruntled elder in a gruff and aggressive tone.

The two elders, Koharu Utatane a widely respected former kunoichi, and Homura Mitokado another respected ninja, met the third elder's gaze with their own. They both sighed softly.

"Danzo, we have discussed this many times. Hiruzen did not leave you as a candidate for the Hokage position. We can't elect you if the other candidates that he listed are still alive and well." Homura spoke in an aged tone.

Danzo, gripped his chair tightly. "Jiraiya had rejected your proposal, He denied the Hokage position."

Koharu spoke up, "Yes, he did. However, there is another candidate. Tsunade."

Danzo's eyes widened in anger. "The slug princess? That drunken pathetic woman? She hasn't stepped foot in this village for decades? She wasn't here to protect the village when it came under attack weeks ago, and she won't protect it now!" He said outraged.

"While that may be true, Hiruzen listed her as his possible candidate. We can't let the position be handed to you without confirmation that she has denied the opportunity to be the next Hokage." Homura said.

"Danzo, we've been friends for a long time. Jiraiya is out of the village and tracking Tsunade down, he shouldn't take much longer to find her. If she says no, we'll consider you as a candidate. We both know you are more than capable, but you just need to be patient." Koharu spoke.

Danzo quickly stood up from his chair, and turned his back to the two elders sitting at the desk. His face contorted to one of anger, but he wouldn't let his friends see emotion from him. He quietly walked towards the door, and opened it. Before exiting the room, he looked backwards.

"Please inform me on Tsunade's decision as soon as possible." He ground out, before slamming the door shut.

The two elders let out a deep breath that they were holding.

XXXXX

"That's good Naruko!" Kakashi yelled as he felt his fist being blocked by the blonde girl's forearm.

Naruko was panting with sweat dripping down the side of her face, her breathing was irregular and labored. A clear sign that she was reaching her limit. Kakashi, noticing her condition, decided that it would be a good time to take a break.

"Let's take a break shall we?" He said.

Naruko felt her entire body give out to exhaustion and fell forward. Kakashi's eyes widened and he sprinted over to catch the girl before she face planted into the gravel below. The grey haired sensei picked her up and carried her over to a tree with plenty of shade to cool the young girl off.

Naruko, after being placed down on the ground, leaned backwards on the tree and sighed with content. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei." She said in a tired tone.

"No problem, you did well with the taijutsu training." Kakashi said while smiling.

"Hehe I did, didn't I?" Naruko said. She had to agree with the man. His idea of individual training was really a blessing in disguise. It allowed him the chance to go back and help Naruko with all the basics, something that would have embarrassed her if Sasuke and Sakura were present. She was extremely grateful.

Kakashi placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Naruko to look up. "You know, now that we've done some taijutsu, we can transition over to ninjutsu, would you be up for that?"

Naruko jumped to her feet, seemingly completely recovered from her exhaustion, which puzzled Kakashi greatly, but he found it to be normal for the unpredictable ninja.

"Of course! I'm ready to learn some awesome new jutsu!" She exclaimed with happiness.

Kakashi held his hands up. "Ma ma, Naruko. We aren't exactly going to be learning a new jutsu, but rather your elemental ninjutsu."

Naruko looked at the older man with a clear confusion in her bright blue eyes. "What do you mean elemental?"

He responded by placing a small slip of almost see through paper in her hands. She looked at it oddly, before glancing to her sensei for an explanation.

"You see Naruko, all ninja's chuunin and above use elemental jutsu. It's a high level form of ninjutsu, and today we are going to be learning your affinity, or your element for a better term."

Naruko's eyes widened with excitement with her sensei's words. This would be a new lesson that she would whole-heartedly listen to.

"You see, everyone has an elemental affinity laced with their chakra, when you channel the chakra into the small slip of paper I gave you, the paper reacts based on your specific element." Kakashi explained.

"So, I will find out if I can do water, earth, fire, wind, or lightning jutsu?" She asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, take Sasuke for example. He can perform the Fireball jutsu, a high ranking form of ninjutsu, which suggests that he has a high affinity for fire."

'Wow, Sasuke must be so cool if he can already to that technique. I had no idea' Naruko thought, before realizing that she was praising the black haired Uchiha. 'I sound like Sakura!' She hauntingly realized.

Kakashi demonstrated how to channel her chakra into the paper, and Naruko went ahead and did it to her own slip of paper. The small paper in her hands immediately reacted to her chakra and shriveled up into a ball.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he observed her paper. 'I never would have guessed that she had an affinity for lightning! I thought she would have had wind like her parents, or fire because of the Kyuubi. She really is unpredictable.' He thought.

"Kakashi-sensei, what does this mean?" She asked, lifting her hand upward, showing the man her paper more clearly.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "Well, the paper shriveling into a ball means that you have an affinity for lightning."

Naruko's eyes sparkled with excitement and joy. "What!? That's so cool, now I can do super awesome lightning jutsu like your chidori!"

"Not exactly, sure you can perform the chidori given your affinity, however the jutsu creates a 'tunnel-vison problem' so to speak. The only way around that would be to have the sharingan. I'm sorry Naruko, but you won't be able to use that jutsu efficiently. Come to think of it, I don't know many lightning jutsu that would be at your level."

Naruko lowered her head in sadness at the point that Kakashi had made. She now found one more thing that she lacked in her ninja skills. At first it was her taijutsu, now it was her ninjutsu. She was too weak to learn more skilled jutsu, and Kakashi wouldn't be able to teach her.

Noticing her depressed mood, Kakashi placed his hand on the small girl's head.

"What's with that look? Just because I don't know lower level lightning jutsu, doesn't mean I won't help you." Kakashi said.

"But how can you help me?" She asked.

"You and I will get some lightning scrolls from the ninja library and we'll learn them together!" He said.

"Really?!" Naruko asked with lots of hope in her voice.

"Of course." Kakashi smiled. "It's my job to teach you as your sensei after all."

Naruko repeated his words in her head. They felt sincere and honest, something foreign to the girl. She felt her eyes water as she realized that Kakashi would be a precious person in her life, someone she would want to protect.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he felt the younger girl wrap him in a tight hug. Naruko gripped the man hard, happy that he was so willing to help her. She had met many teachers in the academy and they had all refused to teach her when things got difficult. Hearing Kakashi say those words, it brought her immense joy.

"Thank you K-kakashi-sensei, I p-promise to try my hardest!" She exclaimed, getting slightly choked up.

Kakashi nodded his head, and wrapped the girl in his arms. He forgot what it felt like to be hugged.

XXXXX

Elsewhere within the village, as the wind blew gently through the air, the sound of tinkling bells could be faintly heard in the breeze.

 **XXXXX**

 **I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 4! Don't forget to comment or review or both!**

 **See ya!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Originally, Chapter 4, 5, and soon to be 6 were all one chapter, but after being gone for so long I decided to split them up. So here is Chapter 5! Right after 4! Chapter 6 should be finished by the weekend, at most by Monday, but I hope this sorta makes up for being gone for a month. I'm really upset about that, and I only have myself to blame. But you guys keep me going so thanks you very much! Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto :((((((((((**

 **XXXXX**

"Come on you guys!" A certain pink haired gennin yelled back towards her team as they all walked away from the Hokage's mansion, having just received a D-ranked mission in the late afternoon. Sakura, was obviously excited about doing a mission since they hadn't had one in quite some time. However, Naruko and Sasuke were both annoyed with the level of difficulty. It seems that even though they had proved themselves in the chuunin exams, neither one had received the rank, and now they were back to the lame old genin missions. Kakashi followed along leisurely, as he really didn't care what mission his team had.

Sakura sighed as she realized that she was the only one excited for the mission. It was easy cash for the young girl, all they had to do was guard a farmer's lot from pesky animals for the night. Sounded simple. The green eyed girl watched as her team slowly caught up to her, and she also noticed something peculiar.

Sasuke and Naruko were walking next to each other, and neither one of them had acted annoyed or irritated by the other. If she didn't know better, they actually looked very content walking side by side. She shrugged her shoulders, continuing towards the farmer's house, never giving her teammates a second thought.

XXXXX

When the team arrived at the farmer's house, Kakashi politely knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer. The dirty wooden door creaked open and revealed a rather old bald man with a blade of grass between his lips.

"Oh the ninja are here! Wonderful!" He said.

"Yes sir, we are team 7, this is Sakura, Naruko, Sasuke, and myself, Kakashi." The gray haired ninja explained.

"Yeah yeah, anyway there's still a bit of sunlight out, I was hoping that you bunch could finish raking the field." The old man said.

"That wasn't really the mission we were tasked with…"Kakashi said.

"Oh nonsense, you kids look like you could use a bit of manual labor! You better hurry, the sun's almost about to go down! The field is right around back! Ain't nothing like a bit of physical work to help the growth of you kids! The sun may go down soon so hurry! Did I mention that the sun is almost about to go down? Ah well hurry along!" The old man said as he shoved multiple rakes into the arms of Kakashi.

"Wai-." Kakashi tried to say, however the door was slammed shut before anyone could argue.

All of team 7 stood there dumbfounded and confused. This was definitely not a part of their mission, but what could they do. If they refused, the old man may not pay them, and that wasn't good.

"I guess we'll go around back." Kakashi said slowly, as if he were still trying to figure out what exactly happened.

XXXXX

Sakura found herself very annoyed as she raked. It didn't help that the field they had to rake was nearly two acres. The team had split up the field into sections so each member did their part, but the work was very tiring. She figured she had finished about half of her section and by now the sun had gone dark, leaving her and the rest of team 7 to finish in the dark.

Sakura paused and looked at her team's progress. Kakashi, having the biggest section was about 75 percent finished with his field, Naruko had done a little over half of her section, and Sasuke was finished with his section. 'Wait? If Sasuke was finished with his section why is he walking over towards Naruko?' Sakura wondered.

She watched as the dark haired teen stood beside the blonde girl and help her. Sakura also saw Naruko's stunned face blushing before staring at the ground, continuing her raking. 'Why doesn't Sasuke help me?' Sakura pondered, before continuing with her own section.

XXXXX

Later into the night, Sasuke and Sakura were chosen to keep watch while Naruko and Kakashi slept. Halfway through the night, they would switch.

Currently, Sasuke had activated his sharingan, scanning the fields for any pests that would destroy or harm the crops being stored in the house. Sakura, on the other hand couldn't forget about how nice Sasuke was acting towards Naruko. The pink haired girl stared at his face while the moonlight shined down on his face. 'Sasuke is really cute, I wonder if he will ever treat me like Naruko?'

Sakura's eyes widened at what she had thought to herself. She had just wished that Sasuke would treat her like Naruko? Didn't that mean that Sasuke would like Naruko?

"Are you keeping watch?" Sasuke's voice pierced through the night, steering Sakura from her thoughts.

She glanced over towards the black haired boy, he wasn't even looking at her, yet he felt that she wasn't focused.

"Hey Sasuke, did you want to go on a date tomorrow?" She asked hopefully, curling up next to the Uchiha.

"No."

"Huh? Why not come on, pleeeeaaasee?" She asked.

"No."

Sakura grit her teeth in anger, how could he be so harsh to her, yet so kind to the blonde idiot on her team!? "Sasuke, why not? Aren't I good enough? I mean you treat Naruko so nicely, and she is such an idiot! Really, why is it that you don't treat me better than her, I'm prettier, smarter, just because her brainless head knows how to punch harder than me, you treat her better. It doesn't make sense!" Sakura exclaimed, shocked at her outburst.

Sasuke whirled his sharingan eyes towards his pink haired teammate. Sakura could see the anger radiating within those menacing red eyes.

"Don't ever say that about her again?! You got that?" He snarled.

Sakura put her hands up, slightly afraid of Sasuke at the moment. "O-okay, I won't. You'd think you'd be in love with her the way you got offended." Sakura said, before her eyes widened as she glanced back to Sasuke.

"Y-you don't love her do you?" She asked, extremely afraid of the answer that she would receive.

Sasuke turned away from his teammate, scanning the field again. "Hn."

It was then that Sakura knew his answer. In reality, she wasn't all that shocked, well, she was shocked that the boy loved Naruko, but she wasn't shocked that he didn't love her. She supposed that deep down, she knew that Sasuke wouldn't ever like her, at least not in a romantic way.

"I guess I was rude…I'm sorry for insulting her." Sakura whispered as she held her knees.

Sasuke turned back towards Sakura, surprised that she didn't have another outburst, or that she wasn't crying. He assumed she would react harshly to finding out her loved a girl that wasn't her.

"Apology accepted." He whispered back.

"If you don't mind me asking…what do you see in her?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke felt himself ponder about that for quite some time. He loved Naruko's bright blue eyes, her personality that opposed his own. He loved when she became all flustered and embarrassed, and he loved how kind she was. He could think of many more reasons why he loved Naruko, which led him to an answer.

"Everything" He responded. While Sakura nodded her head slightly saddened. Of course Sasuke wasn't one to talk much, but she was grateful that he had given her an honest answer.

"I see, well I'm sad that you didn't pick me, but I guess that I kinda knew you wouldn't…I'd still like us to be good friends, maybe that's for the better."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized how calm Sakura was being, but he nodded his head, he would like to have another friend as well. Naruko taught him that friends were important. Why not have another.

"Sure, we can still be friends." Sasuke said, before looking back towards the field.

Sakura nodded her head and too looked out towards the field. It almost felt like a huge weight had been taken off of her shoulders….and it felt kinda relaxing.

XXXXX

The sun gleamed down onto a green field, dew on the grass shined brilliantly with light, a beautiful sight to see early in the morning. However, the two people standing in the field, despite having just come back from a mission earlier that morning, did not notice the grass. The two merely observed each other.

Naruko stood across from Sasuke. The two gennin were silently waiting for the other to make a move in the friendly spar. It was after a few moments that Naruko grew impatient and burst across the field. Sasuke's charcoal eyes widened and he activated his sharingan.

Slowly and clearly, he could see the path that Naruko was taking and with a smooth motion, he was able to step to the side, avoiding her fist. The Uchiha countered and used his leg to sweep low and knock down his opponent as she ran past him, however the girl managed to see this coming and leapt into the air.

Sasuke, seeing her vulnerable, threw multiple shuriken into the air with spot on accuracy. Naruko quickly pulled out a kunai of her own and began blocking the metal projectiles. One managed to slightly cut her shoulder, but the pain was very slight.

When Naruko landed, Sasuke was already approaching her position, and she braced herself for a close quarters fist fight. The first punch that Sasuke threw, Naruko dodged, however the second punch required her to block.

Growling in anger, Naruko retaliated with her own punch towards his stomach, but found that Sasuke had flipped behind her. She tried to jump away, but Sasuke had managed to sweep her legs out from under her, and she landed on her back.

Before she could attempt to get up, she felt the cold metal of a kunai against her neck. She sighed in defeat.

"I forfeit." She growled.

Sasuke lent the blonde girl a hand, and he helped her to her feet. "Your taijutsu is much better. I'm guessing Kakashi's training is working out."

Naruko wiped her sweaty forehead with her orange sleeve and nodded. "Yeah, if it wasn't for your stupid sharingan I would have won that taijutsu match."

"Hn, no way."

"Yes way!"

Sasuke was about to retort again until he noticed the cut in her jacket, he could clearly see the bleeding skin underneath.

"Hold on, take off your jacket." Sasuke all but commanded.

Naruko blushed immensely at what the boy had said, but did so anyway. Unzipping her orange and blue jacket, she revealed the simple black tank top underneath and stood uncomfortably in front of Sasuke.

Sasuke, realized that this was actually the first time he saw Naruko without her jacket. He took in her slightly tanned skin and gentle curves. He actually noticed that Naruko was much skinnier than he thought, and her breasts weren't all that big either, in fact they were really small.

"D-don't stare, it's embarrassing ya know?" Naruko said, a blush adorning her face.

Sasuke also blushed as he realized he was indeed staring and went back to the task at hand. He saw where the cut on her shoulder was, and took out a bandage from the ninja pouch on the side of his pants. Silently placing the bandage over her cut, Sasuke looked away from Naruko, knowing that she felt uncomfortable showing as much skin as she did.

When that task was over, he put her jacket back on for her, and walked her back towards the Uchiha mansion. Right before they were about to enter the door, Naruko leaned on her tippy toes and kissed the boy quickly on the cheek.

"T-thanks" She said quietly.

Sasuke nodded, not trusting his own voice before sliding open the door. He and Naruko took a few steps inside, and he closed the door. Naruko turned to walk down the hallway towards her room and Sasuke walked towards the kitchen.

"Sasuke!" Naruko yelled.

Sasuke quickly turned around and walked towards Naruko's room, but found her completely stopped in the hallway.

"Who are they?" Naruko asked, pointing towards two mysterious figures waiting in the hallway.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Hello…foolish little brother."

 **XXXXX**

 **DUN DUN DUH! Like I said before, chapter 6 should be up by Monday at the latest. Please review and comment. Thank you all so much!**

 **See you soon!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well, Here's chapter 6! I hope you all like the way I've set up this story line. I wanted to change the plot slightly away from the traditional cannon, but still make it somewhat familiar. When I get to the Shippuden timeline (Which I plan to) The story will begin to go its own way from what I've thought of. A few things, I saw in a review by Arianna Le Fay that she was wondering about some plot questions. So here they are. Currently, since this starts after the Chuunin Exams, Naruko does know toad summoning and knows Jiraiya, but doesn't know Rasengan (I'm not sure if she will learn it either, since I don't plan on making Jiraiya her permanent mentor). Sasuke knows the Chidori, and Tsunade and Naruko's relationship will be different than cannon.**

 **Hope that helped anyone who was confused. Don't forget to review and comment! Thank you!**

 **Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO :(**

 **XXXXX**

"Ah nothing like the sight of a beautiful, living village am I right Tsunade?" An older voice spoke.

The owner of the voice walked beside Tsunade as they neared the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The person who spoke of course being, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, and infamous pervert. Next to him was a busty, long blonde haired, brown eyed beauty, Tsunade Senju, the Slug Princess.

"It looks the same as it did years ago." Tsunade commented, hiding her emotions behind a monotone voice.

Behind the two Sannin walked Tsunade's apprentice, Shizune, and pet pig, Tonton. Together, the three ninja had walked several miles after being convinced by Jiraiya that Tsunade was needed to take the position of Hokage. At first, the woman rejected and insulted the position. However, everything changed when Orochimaru had shown up and attacked the three ninja.

During the battle, Jiraiya had been severely hurt, and it was then that Tsunade realized that she didn't want to lose anymore of her dear friends, and gambling and drinking away from the village would do nothing. Whether she liked it or not, she was the last Senju, someone with close ties to the village. If she wasn't there to lead it, no doubt someone like Danzo would take over, and that wasn't an option. Danzo would sacrifice ninja for his own motives. She wouldn't let something like that happen.

So here she was, returning to Konoha to take over as the fifth Hokage. Shizune, of course following her master, walked closely behind as they approached the enormous red gates of Konoha. When they arrived to the sign-in stand, Jiraiya and Tsunade immediately noticed that something was very wrong. Both attendants were passed out in their chairs.

To any normal ninja or civilian, it would appear as if they were sleeping on the job, however the two Sannin noticed the chakra in the two ninja had been disrupted. Quickly, Jiraiya and Tsunade placed their hands on the two ninja and yelled in unison.

"Kai!" The Sannin yelled.

Both chuunin shot directly upwards, having been released from a powerful genjutsu. At first they looked extremely confused, trying to recall the events before they had been knocked out. When they noticed the two Sannin and Shizune, they tried to explain what happened.

"Jiraiya-sama! Tsunade-sama! Two men with black cloaks and red clouds infiltrated the village! Please, you have to warn everybody!" One of the chuunin yelled out quickly.

Jiraiya's eyes widened with the information he had received. The Akatsuki were in the village, no doubt after Naruko! He had to find the girl as soon as possible.

Jiraiya turned towards Tsunade and Shizune. "You two warn as many ninja as you can, I'm going to go find the two men!"

They both nodded before running off into the village. Jiraiya, with a few hand signs and summoned two small yet very old looking toads.

"I'm going into Sage Mode, I need to find Naruko. Please help me!" Jiraiya stated as the two toads hopped onto his shoulders and nodded their heads.

XXXXX

"Hello…foolish little brother."

Sasuke's eyes widened as he looked down his hallway, seeing a large, blue, shark-like man with a large sword wrapped in bandages, and next to that man was a smaller black haired man. Sasuke didn't realize the blue man…but the other one. The other one he knew very well.

"ITACHI!" Sasuke roared with recognition. His two tomoe sharingan flaring to life and electricity beginning to spark in his left hand. The sound of chirping birds rang throughout the Uchiha mansion, and the intensity of the jutsu was nearly blinding.

Naruko's eyes widened at how hostile Sasuke had suddenly turned. She witnessed Sasuke's aura turn cold and dark. Seeing Sasuke like this…it scared her. He looked like he was losing his mind. Whoever these two men were, they were clearly bad news.

The blonde girl laced her hand within Sasuke's right hand, trying to break him from this hate-filled aura.

"Sasuke!" Naruko yelled over the sound of a thousand chirping birds.

When Sasuke felt Naruko's hand within his own, he mentally cursed, remembering that he wasn't the only one in danger. Itachi was a ruthless ninja, killing all of his closest loved ones. It was then that the young Uchiha realized that Naruko was in more danger than he thought.

'W-what if Itachi kills Naruko too? No! I can't let that happen! I need to get her out of here!' Sasuke thought.

Sasuke's chidori slowly dulled down into nothing, an action that actually surprised Itachi. He thought that his younger brother would be so overwhelmed with hate that he would charge in without thinking. It seemed that Sasuke was more in control of his emotions than Itachi thought.

Sasuke gripped Naruko's forearm tightly and turned towards her, an intense hurried look on his face. "

"Naru, you have to get out of here!"

"I don't understand Sasuke, what's going on?" Naruko asked, clearly afraid with how distraught Sasuke was.

"There's no time to explain! You have to leave NOW!" Sasuke yelled.

Naruko paused a moment, her crystal blue eyes connecting with Sasuke's she could see all his anxiety and his worry. Whatever was going on, Sasuke feared for his life, but he feared for hers much more.

"I-I can't leave you!" Naruko said, causing Sasuke to grip her forearm harder in frustration.

"Just go, get Kakashi and come back! I'll be alright!" Sasuke yelled, becoming very impatient. This was no time for her to be stubborn.

Naruko slowly nodded her head and turned around, she ran forward, running towards the exit of the home. Suddenly, within the blink of an eye, the shark-like ninja flew past Sasuke, faster than he could see, and reappeared in front of Naruko, blocking her escape.

Sasuke's eyes widened. 'Fast!'

Naruko jumped backwards, her own back coming in to contact with Sasuke's. She had to get out of here, and if possible, bring Sasuke with her. She didn't know who these men were, but she did know that if she left Sasuke for too long, he would….he would…Naruko couldn't finish that thought.

"Woah there squirt." The shark-man grinned, while placing his wrapped sword onto his broad shoulder. "Who said you could run?"

Naruko gulped in fear. She steeled herself however, as she thought of a way to escape the large man. Shadow clones. The young gennin brought her hands in a cross-like formation and chanted the words that she's said hundreds of times in her career.

"Shadow clone jut-!" She yelled, only to be cut off as the giant wrapped blade swung towards her body. She quickly ducked under the sword, prepared to finish her jutsu, only to find that the chakra she had built up disappeared. She looked towards the blue man and her eyes widened in horror as the sword seemed to move underneath its wrapping, as if it were alive.

"Ah, Samehada likes the taste of your chakra!" The man said. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself…I'm Kisame Hoshigake. As you can see, my sword Samehada has the ability to eat chakra…and I'm afraid he wants more."

Meanwhile, Sasuke felt his body go tense as Itachi took a step closer to him. Feeling an intense fear, Sasuke quickly went through multiple hand-signs before taking a large breath of air.

"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled as a large flaming ball came out of his mouth, expanding to the size of the hallway.

Sasuke watched with anticipation as Itachi made no move to dodge the blazing inferno. When the fireball connected with Itachi, an explosion rocked the entire Uchiha mansion, and broken wood and dust flew around the area where Itachi stood.

Red sharingan eyes scanned the hallways, hoping that he had killed his brother with that devastating attack. However, instead of seeing the body of his older brother, Sasuke saw a bunch of crows lying where Itachi stood.

'Did you really think it would be that easy?' A voice said within Sasuke's head, and the crows suddenly took flight, aiming for the young Uchiha. Sasuke was stunned as the crows converged onto one point just in front of the boy before taking shape into a human figure.

A fist buried itself into Sasuke's stomach and the boy's eye's widened. The black haired gennin felt the air get knocked out of him, but it didn't stop there. A flurry of fists quickly planted themselves into his stomach, Sasuke hunched over gasping for air, only to be picked up by the neck and held in front of his older brother Itachi.

'Is this, the difference between me and him?' Sasuke wondered. 'It feels like nothing's changed since back then.'

Itachi brought Sasuke close to his face and the sharingan stared into sharingan. "You know Sasuke, you still lack hatred…and you know something." Itachi said leaning closer to his younger brother. "You will never have enough." Itachi whispered before his eye's morphed into a shuriken form, something Sasuke had seen many years ago.

"No!" Gasped Sasuke as he tried to struggle against Itachi's grip on his neck. However, he was too weak to resist, and the young Uchiha found himself being teleported to the world of Tsukuyomi.

XXXXX

-Within Tsukuyomi-

Sasuke frighteningly looked around as he found himself at the entrance to the Uchiha compound, however he wasn't fooled by the seemingly calm atmosphere. He knew where he really was. He wanted, no needed to get out of here, he needed to run away.

Sasuke tried to move, only to find his own body unresponsive to his mind. He felt himself get up and walk further into the compound.

"No!" Sasuke screamed but his body refused to listen.

He witnessed the Uchiha massacre from start to finish just like he did all those years ago. With every death of a loved one, Sasuke screamed out harder and harder for the madness to stop, but the torture continued for days and days. Sasuke cried out as he witnessed his mother and father being killed for the thirteenth time, but instead of starting over like the nightmare usually did, a door opened up behind the boy.

Sasuke felt his body turn around and watch as someone came out of the Uchiha mansion's guest room. 'That room, it's…!' His mind froze as the person walking out of the room became clearer and clearer. It was Naruko, sweet innocent Naruko. Dressed in her blue pajamas and night cap, her hair disheveled from a long nights sleep, and rubbing her tired eyes from being woken up.

"NO!" Sasuke screamed as he realized why she was here.

Naruko opened her wide blue eyes tiredly and yawned cutely. "Sasuke, are you making breakfast?" She whispered quietly, walking closer to Sasuke.

"G-Get out of here! Run!" Sasuke screamed.

Naruko continued to take slow and gentle steps across the wooden floor, and a shadow grew behind her. Sasuke watched as the shadow took the shape of his older brother dressed in a bloodstained ANBU uniform, silently clutching a bloody katana.

"NO! PLEASE!" Sasuke pleaded.

"Hm?" Naruko mumbled. "Oh Sasuke…good mor-!"

NOOOO!" Sasuke screamed, horrified as he watched the blade pierce through the girl's tiny little chest. Blood began to leak out of the girl's mouth and around her stomach, eventually dripping to the floor. The image of Naruko's wide terrified eyes was stained into the Uchiha's memory and he felt himself scream endlessly, falling into a pit of insanity

This. This was hell.

XXXXX

Naruko watched, terrified as within seconds, Sasuke had been thoroughly beaten and suddenly began screaming like a horrified child. The blonde gennin saw Itachi roughly toss Sasuke behind him, and walk closer to herself. She took a step back, only to halt as she remembered that Kisame was on the other side of her. She was cornered.

"Naruko Uzumaki" Spoke Itachi, in an oddly gentle yet creepy voice. "You're coming with us."

'T-this is Sasuke's brother. The one who killed his entire clan.' Naruko thought.

Suddenly there was a large explosion, blasting through the walls of the hallway, and a large tongue-like object shot through the opening, wrapping up Naruko. Following the tongue, Jiraiya the Toad Sannin, with two elder toads on his shoulders walked into the building.

"Well, well, well, looks like Akatsuki is moving a little faster than I expected." Jiraiya said, placing his hands on his hips and glaring at the two cloaked ninja.

Kisame chuckled. "You wanna go old man? I wouldn't mind tearing you to shreds." Kisame said as he began to unwrap Samehada.

Naruko's eyes widened as she heard Jiraiya's distinct voice, although she couldn't see anything because of the odd tongue-like material that she was wrapped in.

"Kisame, let's leave…that's Jiraiya of the Sannin. You won't be able to beat him, besides, we don't want to attract any more attention." Itachi said.

"Fine, I hate that we always leave before I get to let loose." Kisame sighed. "I guess it can't be helped."

Jiraiya's eyes widened as the two ninja began to run down the hallway at an insanely fast speed. Quickly the toad ninja flew through multiple hand signs before placing his palms on the wooden floor. A strange fleshy pink substance began to spread across the walls at an equally fast speed, and Jiraiya watched silently as the two ninja turned a corner into a dead end.

The toad Sannin waited for the stomach of the toad to capture the two Akatsuki, however his eyes widened as he felt a large 'hole' being made. He ran towards the end of the hallway and glared at the peculiar black flames around a large circular hole in the Uchiha mansion.

Naruko suddenly felt herself be released from the tongue-like material and her eyes widened seeing the state of the Uchiha mansion.

"What happened here?" She quietly asked.

"Ah you're okay! That's great!" Jiraiya said as he walked back to Naruko and placed his hand on the floor, causing the pink substance to recede. Naruko nodded her head slightly, dumbfounded by what exactly had just happened only to remember her teammate.

"Sasuke!" Naruko yelled and hurried to his downed figure, clutching his head in her lap. She saw his chest move up and down signaling that he was breathing and alive, something she was thankful for. However she also saw the pained look on the boy's face and his feverishly hot skin.

"Jiraiya-sama! You have to help Sasuke! H-he was screaming and wailing! I think that Itachi guy did something real bad to him! Please you have to help him!" She said as her eyes began to water.

Jiraiya's face contorted to an intrigued and thoughtful look. He placed his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder and spoke. "Kai!" However, the Sannin saw that there was no effect at all. Sasuke's chakra was still being disrupted.

"Hm…It appears that he is under a genjutsu that won't break at the application of chakra. Luckily the best medic in the world is here in the village, we'll go see her." Jiraiya said, while picking up Sasuke and throwing him over his shoulder. The two ninja walked out of the mansion, searching for Tsunade.

XXXXX

"-and that's the situation so far." Jiraiya finished as he recalled the events that took place only a few minutes ago. Now, Naruko, Jiraiya, Shizune, Tsunade, and an unconscious Sasuke were in a hospital room.

"I see…well I'll try what I can." Tsunade said calmly while looking at Sasuke lying on the bed.

"Please! Save Sasuke!" Naruko yelled, becoming worried and frustrated with how calm everyone was being. Naruko could clearly see that Sasuke was in pain, she wanted him to be cured so he wouldn't have to suffer longer.

"I'm sorry…who is this?" Tsunade said, annoyed at the blonde's outburst.

"I'm Naruko Uzumaki! But that doesn't matter! Stop lounging around and help my best friend! He's in pain!" Naruko replied.

"Listen here brat! I won't take orders from you or any other brat here in this village. I said I'll do what I can, I'm the next Hokage anyway! So shut up and let me do my work!" Tsunade yelled.

Naruko looked towards the ground while her blonde bangs overshadowed her eyes, silently mumbling to herself.

Tsunade, hearing Naruko's mumbling grew even more irritated. "What was that brat!?"

Naruko shot forward, looking the blonde woman directly in the eyes. Tsunade's eyes widened when she saw tears sliding down the small girls face.

"I said! What kind of a Hokage stands around while one of her ninja is suffering and she can do something about it!" Naruko yelled/cried.

Tsunade's mouth closed into a thin line and looked towards Sasuke, writhing in pain on the hospital mattress. She silently got up, and walked closer towards Sasuke, scanning his body over. The blonde medic pulled a chair over and sat down while placing her glowing green hands over Sasuke's forehead.

Naruko, wiping the tears from her face, quietly watched the woman heal Sasuke. She observed how Tsunade's hand would hover slightly above Sasuke's body, constantly scanning him over.

"Heh." Tsunade chuckled, causing Naruko to look at the woman, who had her back to Naruko. "Look at me…getting put in my place by a brat…..thanks…Naruko."

Naruko nodded her head, once again wiping a few stray tears from her reddened eyes.

XXXXX

"Hm?" Naruko mumbled. "Oh Sasuke…good mor-!"

NOOOO!" Sasuke screamed, horrified as he watched the blade pierce through the girl's tiny little chest. Blood began to leak out of the girl's mouth and around her stomach, eventually dripping to the floor. The image of Naruko's wide terrified eyes was stained into the Uchiha's memory and he felt himself scream endlessly, falling into a pit of insanity

This. This was hell.

Sasuke felt his body shoot up, sweating as if he had a nightmare. However, what he experienced was worse than any nightmare he had. He observed his surroundings, finding himself in a dull hospital bed in a white room. The moon was shinning its light through the windows, gracing the room with its beauty. Sasuke gripped his head in pain as he can to terms with everything that had happened. He felt...broken.

His musings were brought to a halt as he looked to his side, finding Naruko, sleeping silently in a ball on a wooden chair besides his bed. The moonlight made her blonde hair glow, and caused the small line of saliva dripping from her mouth to shine. He breathed a shaky breathe as he realized that she never really died. She was still alive.

He felt something he hadn't felt in a long time...something wet on his face. He slowly brought his pale fingers to his cheeks, and touched them, startled by the slippery feeling. 'I'm crying?' He wondered.

A small moan of distress made its way out of Naruko's mouth and the young Uchiha looked over towards his teammate. He watched as she stirred herself from sleep and slowly opened her eyes.

When Naruko opened her eyes, she saw a figure sitting up on the bed in front of her. "Sasuke!" She whispered happily.

As her eyes began to focus she could clearly see the Uchiha's face, but instead of his usually calm features, she saw his red puffy eyes, and his tears.

"Sasuke." She said again quietly, hoping that he was alright.

Sasuke nodded his head slightly and chuckled. Naruko got out of her chair and crawled up onto his mattress. Almost instantly he took her within his arms and placed her against his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head.

"I-I'm so h-happy you're okay." Sasuke choked out, still crying silently as he held her.

Naruko closed her eyes and nuzzled herself closer into Sasuke's chest. She too felt tears slide across her own face. She had been just as worried.

"Me too" She whispered gently.

She felt his lips against the top of her head, pressing down on her firmly. Naruko felt the way Sasuke's body shook as he continued to cry. The two gennin continued to rest quietly on the bed, letting their emotions do the talking.

 **XXXXX**

 **And that's it! Next Chapter should be posted by Saturday! I'm gonna try (keyword being "try") to post every Saturday, but we'll see how that goes. Thank you all for reading this chapter! Please review and comment! Other than that have a wonderful, amazing day! Since you all are so wonderful and amazing!**

 **BYE!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Woohoo! Chapter 7! Fair bit of warning but this chapter does get pretty emotional! Anyway I'm really liking where this story is headed, and I love everyone's support! Please don't forget to review or comment. If anyone has any questions about the story please PM me. I'm always willing to respond, and it makes things a little easier. Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO :(**

 **XXXXX**

Sasuke stared at the white wall across from his hospital bed, his black eyes glazed over in thought. The black haired teen recalled his near mental breakdown that had occurred yesterday night. Now, another day had passed and while Naruko had stayed with him for most of the day by his side, she was taken away by Kakashi for her training that late afternoon. She was getting stronger while he stayed here in this pitiful room, with nothing to do other than reflect over his thoughts.

'I was so weak…I couldn't do anything.' Sasuke mentally reminded himself as he gripped the bedsheets with a force that made his knuckles turn white. He must have had that thought run through his mind a million times.

Turning his head to gaze out in the sun setting over the village, Sasuke thought about his strength. He had forgotten how much stronger Itachi was, even before the massacre. An eight year old Itachi could probably beat him. Sasuke figured that he was progressing much faster than his peers, but he must have let that get to his head, because although he may be considered one of the best gennin of the current generation, Itachi's shadow was much greater than his own.

Sensing a foreign presence in the room, Sasuke's active sharingan eyes flashed to the side of his bed. The red orbs widened as he saw the air in a particular spot in the room warp and distort.

'What the hell?!' Sasuke thought.

XXXXX

Bright blue eyes glared at the white pages before them. Naruko, with a face twisted in determined focus was trying her hardest to read the book that she held in her hands. Looking away from the incomprehensible book, she gazed over to her sensei, who was sitting down, flipping the pages of his book at an extremely fast rate.

'How can he even read that fast!?' Naruko thought, she tilted her head down in sadness. 'I haven't even got past the first page.' Her body slumped in depression.

When Kakashi had shown up at the hospital to train Naruko, she was ecstatic! She didn't know however, that the copy-ninja intended to spend the entire training session in the library, reading books about her elemental affinity.

Sensing his student lose her motivation to continue reading, Kakashi closed his book and walked over to her. Naruko followed him with her eyes as he walked towards her. His lone black eye made contact with hers and she looked down hastily, hoping that Kakashi would think that she was still reading.

He plopped himself down right beside Naruko and looked over to see where she was at in her reading. Perhaps she couldn't read for long periods of time and needed some more motivation.

The grey haired ninja's eye widened when he saw that she was still reading the first page of her book. They had been in the library for nearly an hour! He looked at her face, which was contorted into a look of confusion and frustration.

"You know Naruko…you have to read the book to learn a new jutsu." Kakashi said.

Naruko turned her head to look up at her sensei. "Well why can't you teach me Kakashi-sensei? You read like three books since we got here! You can just simplify it all!" Naruko exclaimed, letting out her frustration.

Kakashi's eye narrowed slightly in curiosity. "Is that book too hard to read for you?" He asked.

Naruko tore her gaze away from her mentor, finding the ground being a more acceptable place to look towards.

"I don't know…when I see words that I don't understand…I don't know what to do…" Naruko whispered, trailing off towards the end.

Kakashi nodded his head in understanding and looked towards the book that Naruko was gripping tightly in her hands. He leaned his body closer to Naruko's to get a better view of the book and started to speak quietly.

"You know…if you can't read these books, you won't be able to learn the jutsu. It wouldn't be right for me to teach that way."

Naruko nodded her head sadly, understanding what her sensei was saying.

"So here's what we're gonna do…you read aloud, and let me know when you get to a difficult word, and I'll explain. Okay?" Kakashi said.

Naruko swiveled her head to look at her sensei, her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape in a stunned silence. She closed her mouth and smiled slightly. Naruko should know by now that her sensei would help her and support her. He was already spending his entire afternoon with her in the library.

The blonde girl nodded her head in thanks and picked up her book to eye level, before beginning to read the first sentence aloud. Kakashi, loomed right above her, ready to help his adorable little gennin.

XXXXX

'What the hell!?' Sasuke thought as a portal seemed to rip through the air in his hospital room. The twisting air started to gain color, as if something was suddenly traveling through. Sasuke watched as colors of red, black, and orange spilled into the room. As the twisting portal seemed to slow and shrink, the black haired genin watched the colors he saw before take shape into a human-like figure.

When Sasuke recognized the familiar black cloak with red clouds, his positioning on his bed became defensive. The only people that had those types of cloaks, was Itachi and the organization that he had joined.

The last thing Sasuke noted about the person in the room, was that he or she was wearing an orange mask with one open hole on the right.

"Hello Sasuke." A strong deep voice spoke from the masked man.

Not wasting any time figuring out who this infiltrator was, Sasuke leapt from his bed with a battle cry, and ran to strike his enemy, at this speed and range, Sasuke figured the man wouldn't have time to counter.

Sasuke watched as his first struck the cloaked figure directly in the chest, however Sasuke didn't feel contact. To the young Uchiha's surprise…he felt his momentum carry forward, through the man, as if he wasn't really there to begin with.

'Huh?' Sasuke thought in confusion, his mind trying to logically process why he hadn't landed a direct hit.

Sasuke heard the man's deep chuckle as Sasuke finished going through him. Suddenly, Sasuke felt a strong grip latch onto his pale wrist and his body forced upward into the air. Swinging in an arch, Sasuke slammed down onto the cold white tile floor, his body shook under the pressure and he let out a big gasp as the air in his lungs was forced out.

The man seemed to walk closer to the coughing young teen, his head tilted in interest. "Clearly you are no Itachi, but I do sense a lot of…similarities." The man said, walking closer to Sasuke.

The black haired teen sat up slightly, gripping his throbbing side as he glared at the man coming closer. "Who are you?!" Sasuke spat.

The man crouched down, the hole in his mask, level with Sasuke's eyes. Sasuke's sharingan eyes widened as he could faintly see the glow of a sharingan eye in the dark hole of the mask.

"I am Madara Uchiha." The masked man said, his rough voice harmoniously syncing with his menacing presence.

"Who?" Sasuke asked, finding it odd that he couldn't recognize a name from his own clan.

"Well, I guess my name doesn't really matter, but what does matter, is you." Madara said cryptically.

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably as Madara continued to stare at him, observing him.

"I understand that Orochimaru has set his eyes on you…to be his new vessel. From what I heard only a few months ago, you would have gladly gone to him for power if it meant your brother's demise…So why didn't you go?" Madara asked.

Sasuke's eyes widened, wondering how someone he had never met in his life, was able to know so much about him. In all honesty…after his humiliating defeat from Itachi a couple days ago, the thought of going to Orochimaru had gone through his head more than once.

"I…I don't know." Sasuke said, a faint image of a blonde haired, blue eyed girl flashed through his head before he dismissed it.

"You see Sasuke...you are in somewhat of a pickle here. On one side you could stay here and train with your beloved team 7, but you and I both know that you won't be able to progress nearly fast enough. Perhaps Itachi would die of old age by the time you would be strong enough to beat him." Madara's eyes glowing with glee as he saw Sasuke's nails dig into his fists. "Or you could take a gamble and sacrifice yourself to Orochimaru, in hopes that the man would kill Itachi for you. Neither of those options seem very smart now do they?" Madara finished.

"Why are you reminding me? Why are you here?" Sasuke growled.

"I'm here Sasuke…to offer you a third option."

Sasuke's eyes glowed with a sense of confusion, something Madara had picked up on. "Sasuke, I work in the same organization as your brother, however you should not mistake us as friends. In fact, he's been a thorn in my side for a long time. I thought to myself, I need an apprentice, someone I can train to kill Itachi. Then I found you, someone who wants nothing more than to kill Itachi. I'd say that's more than just a coincidence."

"What makes you think you can train me to beat him?" Sasuke wondered, seriously considering Madara's proposal.

"I have spent years working in the same organization as him, I have done extensive research on his abilities, and within three years tops, I could have you at level above his." Madara finished, smirking behind his mask.

Sasuke's eyes glazed over in thought. 'A level above Itachi!' Such an idea was nearly impossible for Sasuke to comprehend, after realizing the power difference they had when they fought. His mind working in overdrive, considering all the pros and cons. At the moment, he couldn't think of any cons.

A sudden chatter in the hallways alerted the two ninja in the room. Madara and Sasuke glared at the door, cursing the nurses that were interrupting this meeting.

Madara sighed. "I suppose I should give you a day to think about this. If you decide to join me, meet me on the roof tomorrow night."

With that, Sasuke watched carefully as the air around Madara twisted and sucked him in. Within seconds the man had completely disappeared. The black haired teen got up from the ground and sat on his bed. His eyes gazing at the bright light of the moon that now loomed over Konoha.

"A third option huh?" He whispered.

XXXXX

The next day, Naruko and Sasuke were walking down the street in the Uchiha mansion. Having been allowed to leave the hospital early in the morning, Sasuke wasted no time in getting back towards his home. Oddly enough, he ran into Naruko on his way back, as she was on her way to the hospital for him. The two walked while Naruko talked about how she had actually prepared herself a nice breakfast for once, however Sasuke couldn't get the conversation about last night out of his head. He continued to walk in silence.

"-and I thought the batter would spill all over the place, but then I-…Sasuke! Are you listening?" Naruko asked, pausing her morning story.

Sasuke continued to keep walking, his own mind working feverishly to sort out all the thoughts that ran through his head.

"Sasuke?" Naruko asked again, her blue eyes showing concern for the boy next to her.

The black haired teen continued to think. 'If I could beat Itachi and not sacrifice myself that would be the best option…but can I really leave Konoha? Of course I can, Konoha is a community of babies who think that teamwork triumphs power. Wait! I shouldn't think something like that. But it's true. Not it's not.'

The outside noise was disrupting Sasuke's thoughts, causing him to grow very annoyed very fast. He heard the muffled sound of Naruko repeating his name, but why? 'Couldn't she just be quiet for once?' He asked himself.

"Sasuke are you alright?" Naruko asked, this time lightly griping the black fabric of his shoulder. She felt his body twist sharply, causing her to lose her grip. She watched as Sasuke turned to glare at her. Naruko's eyes widened with confusion.

"Will you just shut up! You're annoying!" Sasuke yelled.

Sasuke whirled back around and continued to walk towards the Uchiha mansion, while Naruko stood in the middle of the street. Her eyes still wide in shock. She wasn't trying to be annoying…she was just concerned. She felt her eyes start to prick with tears, but quickly wiped her face with her orange sleeve.

"S-sorry." She whispered, her head tilted downward as she took much slower and shorter steps towards the Uchiha mansion. Sasuke had already been long gone.

XXXXX

Dinner that night had been very quiet, Naruko had been very quiet the entire day. Her only wish at the moment was to not annoy Sasuke. Without words she was the one to cook dinner, due to her increasing skills in cooking, while Sasuke continued to sit at the table in thought.

Once dinner had been finished, Naruko cleaned up both his plate and her own. While scrubbing the dishes, her stomach twisted in sickness. A couple days ago, she and Sasuke never felt closer, but now…the silence between them was killing her.

"I'm going to bed." Sasuke grunted while pushing out his chair and walking towards his bedroom.

'It's a little early for bed.' Naruko thought, before whispering a small "goodnight". However she was sure that Sasuke hadn't heard it. She wasn't sure if he even cared.

Naruko slowly walked back towards the Uchiha guest room, her entire posture showing her sadness. Clearly Sasuke was thinking about something, but why couldn't he share it with her? Did it have to do with her annoying him? She hoped not.

Passing by Sasuke's room, she came to a sudden halt. Her feet wouldn't take another step, and her saddened face just stared at the wooden door. Behind the door she could faintly hear the shuffling of drawers.

Deciding that she had to talk with Sasuke, she knocked lightly on his door.

"What?!" Sasuke's muffled voice yelled through the door.

"Can I come in?" She asked, trying to be clear but soft.

Naruko heard cursing behind the door and drawers closing and opening once more. Did her presence make him want to curse?

"Yeah come in." Sasuke said after a few minutes of silence.

Naruko turned the knob of the door, a wooden creaking sound made itself present as the door swung open and she walked inside. His room was much messier than he normally kept it, and she noticed Sasuke sitting on his bed, glaring at her.

"Did you need something?" Sasuke asked with a tone of impatience. His words making Naruko wince.

"I-I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Naruko said softly, her eyes staring at the ground.

"I'm fine thanks, is that all?" The impatient tone was still there. Clearly Sasuke didn't want her to be anywhere near him at the moment.

Naruko shook her head and turned around, walking towards the door. She took one last glance at Sasuke seated on the bed before her eyes caught something in the closet beside him. It was his backpack, half filled with clothes and ninja supplies.

'We don't have a mission tomorrow.' Naruko thought. 'Wait! Is he?'

"Well? Are you leaving?" Sasuke asked, his irritation peaking.

Naruko turned back to look at Sasuke, her blonde hair hiding her blue eyes. She shuffled closer to Sasuke's beside and leaned forward. Sasuke's eyes widened as he felt Naruko's arms wrap tightly around his neck, her chin and cheek digging into his shoulder.

Surprised at the sudden hug, Sasuke was about to push her off, until he felt her entire body shaking and the sound of muffled cries echoing through the room.

"Naruko? What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Naruko cried repeatedly into Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke gripped her shoulders and pushed her back so he could see her face. Her cheeks and eyes were flushed red, tears streaking down her smooth skin. Sasuke wondered if she found out about his plan to leave. He wanted to distance himself from her…soften the blow.

"Why are you leaving Sasuke?" She cried as Sasuke mentally cursed. 'She knows.'

"I-is is it because of me?" Naruko continued to cry. "I promise, I won't be annoying anymore, I'll even let you take my training spots with Kakashi-sensei, anything! Just please don't leave me." She cried.

"Y-you would give up your training?" Sasuke gasped.

The blonde girl nodded her head rapidly while continuing to sob. Sasuke thought that she would be fine without him, after all she still had 2/3's of team seven.

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

"Because…a-all my life I've been alone. I don't want the one person I care most about to leave me!"

Sasuke's dark eyes looked away from her. Her cries eventually dulling down to a few sniffles. It's true that he didn't want to leave Naruko, and honestly he hadn't really thought about her reaction until now.

"I'm sorry Naruko." He whispered, black eyes still looking away from the crying girl.

"Y-you're not going to Orochimaru are you?" She whispered, her eyes filled with fear.

"No…I found someone else…I'll be gone for a couple years."

'Years!' Naruko mentally gasped, her tears starting up once again. "Sasuke! Y-you can't! Please don't!"

"Naruko I-." Sasuke started.

"I LOVE YOU!" Naruko shouted, causing Sasuke's eyes to widen immensely. "Naruko." Sasuke said sadly, he wished that he could say the same, but if he did…it would make it even harder to leave.

"I can prove it to you!" She cries as she suddenly tackled the black haired Uchiha on top of his bed. Before he could react, Naruko's lips were already on his own. Despite the sense of desperation, her lips were still only lightly pushing on his own. She wasn't ready for what she was doing.

She separated from him. "Please don't leave" She said repeatedly between each kiss. With each kiss, her body began to shake harder. She sat up and griped her orange jacket zipper, tugging it downward. Sasuke's eyes grew wide once more and he griped her hand, stopping the zipper from coming down.

"Naruko…stop…you don't want this." Sasuke whispered sadly.

"I-I know…but I love you, and I don't want you to leave." Naruko quivered.

Sasuke removed her hand from her zipper and slowly zipped the jacket back up, Naruko's reddened blue eyes staring away from Sasuke, embarrassed by her actions.

"Naruko…Everything will be okay, I'll be gone for just a little bit, and when I get back, you and I can be together again." Sasuke whispered as he stroked her blonde hair, hoping to soothe her.

"I'm sorry" Naruko whispered, removing herself from straddling Sasuke, she turned to leave the room, before Sasuke's hand gripped her own.

"You can sleep with me tonight…if you want?" Sasuke said, his cheeks faintly blushing.

Naruko wiped her reddened face once more and left the room, only to return in her blue pajamas and night cap. Crawling into bed with Sasuke, Naruko gripped his body tightly, wishing for him to never leave. Within moments Naruko was asleep from her emotional outbursts, and Sasuke was left to lay down and think about what he was leaving behind. He glanced to the side, watching Naruko's parted lips slowly inhale and exhale breaths of air. He gently brushed some of her blonde hair out of her eyes and kissed her forehead.

The two genin laid in the bed together for a few hours before Sasuke knew it was time to go. He twisted his body out of Naruko's tight grasp and grabbed his backpack from within his closet. He quickly wrote a small note to Naruko and left the room.

Closing the door, Sasuke pressed his forehead against the wood. "Please be safe Naruko…I love you." He whispered before walking out the front door and into the night.

 **XXXXX**

 **Poor Naruko! I hated doing this to her, but with her past and her thoughts, I found that she would probably be extremely desperate not to lose someone she deeply cared about. Please review or comment. Thank you all so much!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Guess who's had a lot of time on their hands this weekend! This author! HAHA! I'm so happy that I can post another chapter of my story, please review and comment about the chapter! I hope you all enjoy it, I was literally smiling the whole time I wrote this. Especially the ending!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto : (**

 **XXXXX**

Waking up, Naruko found herself in a bed that wasn't her own. She rubbed her tired blue eyes and watched as the room became sharp and defined. Her brain slowly caught up with the events that took place the night before, although she wished that she hadn't remembered, perhaps everything would have stayed the same if she forgot. Slowly, in a trance-like state Naruko got out of the bed and walked towards the door, pausing when she noticed a piece of paper taped to the surface.

Gently, to preserve the perfect, wrinkleless paper, she scratched off the tape and let the paper fall into her small, awaiting hands. She watched the paper float downwards, her face lacking any emotion. Her eyes scanned the paper, finding it filled with neat legible writing.

 _Naruko,_

 _I know we didn't get to talk much about what I've decided to do. I never wanted to leave you so suddenly, but I need to get stronger, if not for myself…for you. When my brother showed up, I couldn't stand the thought of losing you, so I must get stronger so I can protect you in the future. You are more than welcome to stay in the Uchiha Mansion, It's your home now. Please try to eat better like you have been, and stay strong. Kakashi-sensei and Sakura are your friends so please don't be afraid to ask them for help. Naruko you are an amazing, beautiful girl. Have confidence in yourself, and grow stronger. I believe in you._

 _-Sasuke_

Naruko lowered her hands and turned her head to look out the window. She watched the green leaves of trees rustle in the wind. It was funny, when she looked outside Naruko saw things that she'd seen a thousand times, and yet, everything felt different.

Opening the door and stepping into the hallway, she walked across the wooden floor, eventually stopping at the entrance of the kitchen. Her eyes scanning the sheer cleanliness of the room. Naruko's own mind replaying an older memory of her and Sasuke running and laughing throughout the kitchen. She felt her emotionless face form a small smile.

A series of taps resounded through the mansion and Naruko glanced over to the front door. She walked forward and grasped the knob, turning it to reveal whatever was behind.

"Sasuke!" A distinctly familiar voice yelled as the door swung open.

Naruko came face to face with her other teammate Sakura. The pink haired girl sported a very concerned and anxious look on her face.

"Naruko!? Is Sasuke in there? I've been looking all over for him." Sakura asked.

Naruko felt her body stiffen. Her eyes frozen over in thought. Hearing the name 'Sasuke' had already put the young blonde girl on edge.

"Naruko?" Sakura asked, concerned that the girl wasn't speaking.

Finding a portion of her voice, Naruko whispered. "He's gone. He left the village."

Sakura's green eyes widened. "He…left?" Sakura repeated, surprised by her teammates words.

Sakura, after her initial shock glanced up to Naruko's expressionless face. The girl looked like she was lost. Sakura quickly walked forward and gripped Naruko in a tight hug. Naruko's only blue eyes widening in shock.

"I'm sorry Naruko." Sakura whispered in the blonde's ear.

'She knows about Sasuke and me?' Naruko thought.

Not thinking about it any further, Naruko wrapped her arms around her pink haired teammate. A hug was something that the little girl needed. Sakura felt Naruko's body shaking within her arms, so she squeezed her arms even tighter around Naruko in an attempt to comfort her. "It's gonna be okay." She whispered. "It's gonna be okay." Naruko just nodded her head, hoping the girl was right.

XXXXX

"What do you mean he's gone!?" A raspy voice echoed through a dimly lit corridor.

The other six occupants in the room tensed at their master's clear frustration and anger. Inside the room was a man that had been craving for a chance to obtain the sharingan for many years now. He only wished he had thought of the idea before the great Uchiha massacre, but he missed that opportunity. This man's name was of course Orochimaru, an ex-leaf sannin, known as a powerful force that hungered for the chance to master every jutsu known to man, and live as an immortal.

The others in the room were Kabuto, Orochimaru's right hand man and assistant, Kimimaro leader of the Sound Five, Tayuya, a feisty young redhead girl, Jirobo, a heavy, big boned, orange haired man, Sakon, a blue haired, pale skinned individual, and Kidomaru, a six armed, skinny man. All of the said people in the room were currently wishing that they were somewhere away from their master, because the glint in Orochimaru's yellow eyes promised unimaginable pain.

"It appears that the leaf village is currently searching for the boy now. However our search has already determined that he isn't in the village." Kabuto said, finding the confidence to speak up.

"And you're sure that you couldn't be, in the slightest bit, wrong?" Orochimaru snarled.

Kabuto bowed his head. "I am 100% sure Lord Orochimaru."

Orochimaru stared down at his crusted purple arms that shot pain through his being every time he moved. "These arms of mine must be fixed as soon as possible…I suppose I'll have to use _that_ jutsu and wait another three years."

"I'll start the preparations right away." Kabuto bowed before exiting the room. The other six occupants quickly followed behind.

Orochimaru angrily stared into the flame of a burning torch, his yellow snake eyes glowing with curiosity and frustration.

'Where have you gone…Sasuke?'

XXXXX

Sitting on a concrete ledge looking over the village of Konoha, Kakashi thought about the news he heard only a few hours ago. Sure he knew that Sasuke had a power-hungry side, but he had never guessed that the boy would leave so suddenly.

'I suppose Itachi must have triggered this.' Kakashi thought to himself.

Kakashi stared out into the village he grew up in. His whole life had been filled with misfortune and death. He lost his father, both his teammates and later his sensei. It was at that time in his life, he saw no point in continuing, but he did, simply because his teammates would be ashamed of him if he gave up.

After failing every gennin team he came across, one of them actually managed to pass his test by the skin of their teeth. Those gennin, would end up being the older man's source of belonging and happiness. Hearing that one of his own gennin had left, Kakashi can't help but think it was entirely his fault.

"I thought that I would find you up here." An older voice spoke, bringing Kakashi out of his musings.

The grey haired ninja turned his head to look at the owner of the voice. The toad sannin Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya-sama? What are you doing here?" Kakashi asked, surprised that such a renowned ninja came to personally speak with him.

"I heard that one of your gennin has left the village…the Uchiha I believe."

"Yeah." Kakashi sighed.

"I'm sorry…"

The two sat in silence for a couple minutes, looking out into Konoha once more. The people on the streets hustling around, happy smiles on their faces. Kakashi wondered how all those people could be so happy when their village was on the brink of destruction just a few months ago during the chuunin exams.

"It's the will of fire…" Jiraiya said aloud as if he read Kakashi's mind, once again disrupting the copy ninja from his thoughts.

"Hm?"

"The will of fire. When you see all those people down there, happy and smiling…It's because they have the will of fire. A belief that when we all work together, nothing can ever tear us down." Jiraiya spoke sagely. "Old man Hiruzen used to go on and on about it."

"Why did you come here Jiraiya-sama?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya placed a hand on his chin in thought. "Well I came to discuss with you about your students…particularly Naruko. I guess when I saw you all depressed, I figured you could use a little cheering up."

"This is your way of trying to cheer me up?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya gave a hearty laugh while scratching the back of his white mane. "I suppose I'm not doing a good job am I?" The man chuckled a little while longer before turning completely serious. "Listen…the group hunting Naruko, well the Kyuubi within her…They have a name, Akatsuki. What I've learned is that there are roughly ten members, all S-class criminals."

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Why are they after the Kyuubi?"

"I'm not sure, all I know is that they are hunting all of the jinchuriki, one through nine. The infiltration of Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigake was certainly unexpected, however I don't think they will be ready to execute their plan for a few more years."

"What do you think we should do?" Kakashi asked.

Jiraiya intertwined his fingers over his mouth in thought. "At first I thought it would be good to take Naruko off of your hands for a few years and train her outside the village, but I've seen her deep emotional attachment to Sasuke. Right now, with him leaving her, taking her away from you and her teammate Sakura, may only worsen her stability. She needs to be with her friends."

"There are things that I can't teach her Jiraiya-sama. I respect your decision, but are you sure you want her to continue training with me?" Kakashi wondered.

"Kakashi, you sell yourself too short. You are an excellent teacher. Besides, I've scheduled my next couple of years with frequent stops in the village. Perhaps we can teacher her together over the years."

"That sounds acceptable." Kakashi commented.

"Good." Jiraiya grunted as he stood up and turned away. "Listen Kakashi…with Sasuke gone, you should check on your gennin. I'm sure they need you right now."

Kakashi nodded his head and stood up himself, ready to search for Sakura and Naruko. He took a couple more steps before he noticed Jiraiya look back at him.

"By the way Kakashi…I'm sure Minato is very proud of you." Jiraiya said before disappearing in a 'puff' of smoke.

Kakashi nodded his head, silently vey touched by those words. The grey haired jonin turned his head back towards the village streets. Once again noticing the many groups of happy people walking through markets and shops. Children chasing each other with glee, laughing joyously. Kakashi felt his lips curve into a smile.

"The will of fire…"

XXXXX

Laughter rang throughout the Uchiha mansion. Naruko and Sakura were currently sitting on a large leather couch in the living area of the mansion. Sakura was telling a story about a time when she and Ino had competed in a race during their academy years, only to exhaust themselves in the first thirty seconds to the point of them both fainting.

"I'm serious! She and I had perfect eye contact while we sprinted! That was probably one of the worst experiences ever. We both woke up in the hospital bed, and then tried to see who could recover faster!" Sakura laughed.

Naruko laughed along with Sakura, imagining her teammate and the other blonde gennin in her generation competing. She wished that she had a friend like that growing up, someone she could compete against, yet be friends with no matter what.

"It must be nice…ya know…having someone like that." Naruko whispered, a sad smile on her face.

Sakura's eyes widened and she struck out her fist, hitting Naruko in the arm lightly. "Naruko! We're friends right! I'm always willing to hang out with you, and I'm sure Ino wouldn't mind!"

Naruko's eyes widened before she glanced at the ground. "I wouldn't want to intrude…"

"Nonsense! I know that you didn't necessarily like shopping with me the other day, but maybe we can find something else to do! Maybe we could go out to lunch often, or have sleepovers!"

"Sakura-chan…" Naruko whispered, her eyes filling with tears of joy.

Sakura lightly smiled at her friend, placing her fist outward with her pinkie held high. "Come on…pinkie promise that you and I will be great friends…no matter what."

Naruko looked down at her own hand, pinkie flexing into the air. The young blonde hesitated before intertwining her pinkie with Sakura's. Naruko felt a sense of warmth grow within her as Sakura smiled brightly at her. She was grateful for such a good friend.

A knock at the door brought the two girls out of their moment and they both got up to answer it. When Naruko opened the door to find her sensei standing before them. His traditional one-eyed smile, putting her at ease.

"I finally found you both…" He said, a tone of happiness making itself very clear. "I brought dinner!" Kakashi said while holding up a plastic bag filled with take-out boxes, clearly marked 'Itchiraku'

Naruko's eyes lit up with joy and she opened the door wider so the older man could come in. "When you have Itchiraku's you're always welcome Kakashi-sensei!" Naruko cheered, running towards the dining table.

While at dinner, the entire room gave off a warm-glow, a feeling of happiness thriving throughout the entire mansion. Naruko, Sakura, and Kakashi all sitting at the table enjoying the atmosphere. Naruko quickly reached for one of the bowls labeled 'Ramen' before Kakashi gripped her hand with his own.

"Hey what's the big idea?" Naruko asked, annoyed with his actions.

"Nuh uh Naruko…This is your bowl." Kakashi said, handing her a box labeled 'Chicken w/ Veggies'.

Naruko stared at the bowl with wide, horrified eyes. "Y-you can't be serious!" She whined.

"I'm sorry Naruko, but you need to eat other things than ramen…you'll thank me later." Kakashi spoke, feeling much like a parent.

"Fine." Naruko grumbled, while Sakura and Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle. Naruko, hearing their laughter couldn't help but crack a small smile as well.

Fifteen minutes later into team seven's dinner, Kakashi decided that he needed to speak about something genuinely important.

"Naruko, Sakura…I think it's time we discuss the future…you know of team seven."

Sakura and Naruko gave their full attention to their sensei. They both wanted to know what would be the next step.

"As it is, after a few days, team seven itself will be put on hold." Kakashi noticed Naruko begin to stand up in protest, but he put his hand out, stopping her from shouting out against his decision. "I know that you both may not like that, but it only means that we won't be able to take missions that go outside of the village, since we don't have a full team. During the next few years, Jiraiya and I will be teaching you both."

"Jiraiya? Really?" Naruko asked, remembering the man that had given her the toad summoning contract. She really liked the man and was excited to train with such a respected ninja.

"Well, only for a few months at a time, he'll be busy often, so every day, we'll either train or take a few missions within the village. To maximize our efficiency, I'll train one of you during the morning and the other during the afternoon." Kakashi said.

"Um sensei." Sakura said, raising her hand.

"hm?"

Sakura poked her fingers together, a faint blush adorning her face. "I was going to tell you both…but I managed to convince Tsunade-sama and Shizune-sama, to offer me training for the next couple of years."

"Tsunade-sama!? As in the Hokage!?" Naruko shouted with wide eyes, her shock clearly written all over her face. Even Kakashi's single eye was wide. He didn't see that coming at all.

"What made you ask for her training?" Kakashi wondered.

"Well, after the chuunin exams, I realized how weak I really was. I learned that although I may not be very strong…my chakra control would be excellent for medical ninjutsu. I asked Shizune-sama to train me, and she said yes…when Tsunade-sama heard, she said she would help too. I was so shocked. I'm sorry if you think that I went behind your back."

Kakashi placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Sakura…I couldn't be more proud. Although team seven won't be together often for these next couple of years, it'll make the official reunion so much sweeter." Kakashi said.

Together Sakura and Naruko nodded their heads. Naruko looked around the table seeing her two friends go back to lively chatter and she smiled. Sure Sasuke had left, and sure she was sad, but now it was her chance to grow, mentally and physically, and when she and Sasuke meet again, she'll proudly show him how much she's changed for the better.

'Sasuke…I can't wait till we meet again…and I promise I'll grow strong just like you asked, and you'll be amazed!' She thought to herself.

 **XXXXX**

 **Aw the sweet moment of team 7 despite Sasuke leaving. I Love it! Tell me what you guys think, leave a review or comment, and like I said before, if anyone has any questions at all about the story, I'd be happy to answer them, just pm me!**

 **Until Next Time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello everyone! I'm back after such a long time! I've finally rewritten chapter 9 and I hope everyone enjoys it! I made so many changes but I'm very satisfied with what I've written. Thank you all for putting up with my terrible consistency of writing chapters. Anyway, please enjoy and review or comment. Your input really means something to me and I'm always willing to listen to what you all have to say!**

 **Disclaimer: I Don't Own Naruto!**

 **XXXXX**

Within the lively Village of Konoha, a specific shade of pink could be made out of the crowds of people that adorned the streets. Many villagers turned to look at the odd color, realizing that it was Sakura Haruno. After three years of training, Sakura had actually begun to make a name for herself as the apprentice of the Hokage. Many people looked at the young woman with smiles on their faces. Most of them were treated by her in the hospital, something they were grateful for.

Green eyes scanned the streets, smiling happily as children ran past her, while many adults ran after them, scolding their behavior. Sakura had been proud of her achievements over the past few years. Medical jutsu had been quite easy for her to learn, and she felt as though she was getting stronger every day. Although, ever since she began her training, she didn't get to see Naruko or Kakashi-sensei that often. In fact, she hadn't seen them in the past couple months.

She sighed. Of course, she was expecting the blonde to be busy, but after talking with Naruko about being a close friend and then never seeing her, Sakura hoped the blonde wouldn't be too upset with her actions.

As she continued through the streets, Sakura reflected over her reason for leaving the hospital. Apparently Jiraiya-sama was back in the village for the first time in six months. Tsunade-sama had decided that it was time to restart team seven, beginning with a spar between Jiraiya, Sakura and Naruko.

Sakura's fist clenched in anxiousness, she couldn't wait to see what Naruko was capable of. Surprisingly, the blonde girl never mentioned anything she learned when they both had time to get together. Kakashi was the same as always, giving unpredictable hints and never mentioning anything in detail. However, today Sakura would get to see her friend fight for the first time in three years. Sakura only hoped that she could keep up.

"Ah…Sakura right?" An older man's voice spoke out through the crowd of people.

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts, green eyes glancing towards the sound of the voice. There she saw a man in green and red robes, a large spikey white mane on top of his head. Sakura's green eyes widened when she realized who the person was.

"J-Jiraiya-sama!" Sakura gasped, astonished at the man's sudden appearance. "I'm surprised to see you so soon. I heard you were back in the village."

"Yeah well I was on my way to training ground seven when I saw you. You wouldn't mind walking together would you?" The man asked.

Sakura shook her head and the two walked over to the training grounds on the outskirts of the village. At first, Sakura felt a sense of awkwardness walking next to someone she personally hadn't met, and yet, this man was Naruko's sensei, well one of them.

"You look like you've really grown up since I last saw you. A blossoming young woman!" Jiraiya spoke.

Sakura blushed slightly at the mention of her being grown up. Although she heard this man was something of a pervert. It put Sakura on edge. She continued to walk next to the man, thinking of a question to ask him. The silence between them was awkward.

"What do you think of Naruko?" Sakura asked.

"Hm?"

"How much had she grown…in your opinion?" Sakura asked. She really wanted to know Jiraiya's thoughts on her teammate.

Jiraiya put a finger on his chin. "To be honest, I'm not too sure. I've gotten letters of her progress and suggested other forms of training. But I haven't seen much of her in person. There is something that bothers me though…" Jiraiya's voice trailed off. His sudden halt in the conversation peeked Sakura's interest.

"What bothers you?" Sakura asked.

"Never mind that…we're here!" Jiraiya said, changing the subject and pointing to a large open field.

When the two arrived at the training grounds, Sakura was in deep thought. From the way Jiraiya sounded, it seemed like Naruko had a problem, something holding her back. What could that possibly be?

"Sakura-chan!" A feminine voice yelled out.

Sakura looked up and smiled, recognizing the voice right away. There she was, Naruko Uzumaki running towards her, blonde hair wildly gliding through the air behind her, and bright blue eyes, showing all of Naruko's excitement at seeing her friend.

"oof!" Sakura grunted as she was tackled to the ground, her blonde teammate on top of her grinning wildly. Sakura couldn't help but smile at Naruko's sweet innocent face. No longer was she a small, weak person, nor was she too skinny. Sakura noticed that Naruko's new diet had let the girl fill out…slightly. It was hard to tell with Naruko's black and orange track suit, but when Sakura and Naruko had went to the hot springs a few months back, Sakura noticed the girl's growing was still slowed. Naruko only grew two or three inches in the past three years, making her barely 5'2" and the girl couldn't be heavier than 95 pounds. Even her breasts were still an A-cup, maybe a small B at best, but Sakura knew that Naruko's diet in her childhood had really affected her growth, despite her good habits now. Naruko may be small and petite, but now it suited her build rather than hinder it.

"What no love for Uncle Jiraiya?" Jiraiya asked with a mock pout, making Naruko look up towards the bigger man and stick her tongue out at him.

"Why you!" Jiraiya growled at Naruko's humorous disrespect, attempting to pick her up off Sakura, however Naruko saw the move coming and jumped out of the way before he could grab her.

"Too slow Ero-sannin!" Naruko chided

"Hey I told you to stop calling me that!" Jiraiya yelled.

Sakura silently got up, dusting herself off and watching the interaction between the sensei and the student. A small smile adorning her face. 'I'm glad you turned out so well Naruko…I'm really glad.'

XXXXX

Naruko couldn't be more excited to fight against Jiraiya. She had waited nearly three years for to face one of the legendary sannin and thanks to kakashi-sensei's training, she honestly felt like she would give the Toad Sage a good fight. Despite the original plan for both Jiraiya and Kakashi to train the young woman, Jiraiya was forced to frequently leave the village for long periods of time to meet with clients. Sure he was able to write letters and send a lists of jutsu and chakra exercises, but with Kakashi being so close, things between Naruko and Jiraiya felt strained.

Naruko kind of felt bad for the older man. He seemed like he was really excited to meet with her and get to know her. She could always use another mentor, however his desire to be in her life also sparked some curiosity as to why exactly.

Naruko grinned at Jiraiya, a playful smirk on her face. Even though he wasn't exactly close to her, Naruko could still say she cared for the man and enjoyed his company. He was a funny man.

When the three ninja finally finished their greetings, Jiraiya's face became very serious, causing Naruko and Sakura to fall silent. Although despite Jiraiya's serious aura, Naruko couldn't stop shaking in excitement. Finally she could show off her skills and she also couldn't wait to see how Sakura had improved over the years. Surely training with the Hokage had been very successful.

"It's time for us to spar." Jiraiya spoke, his tone matching that of a powerful and experienced ninja. "Remember you two, come at me with everything you have. There aren't any bells in this test, just fighting. Once someone is unable to continue we will stop the spar and I will summarize my evaluation. Any questions?"

Naruko and Sakura shook their heads and dug their feet into the soft grass, ready to pounce on the older ninja at a moment's notice. Jiraiya took a deep breath while stepping back away from the two girls and held his hand up in the air.

"Ready…..GO!"

Sakura was the first to move. Her legs launched her high into the air and she pulled her fist back. Jiraiya watched, somewhat surprised that the pink haired girl decided to attack in such a straightforward way. The white haired ninja quickly calculated where Sakura would land and side stepped.

Sakura smirked as she saw that Jiraiya seemed to have forgotten that she was trained by the legendary Tsunade. Sure he had avoided a direct collision, but the area of her damage was much greater than that. The pink haired ninja's fist clashed into the ground and the area around her crippled under her power.

Jiraiya's and Naruko's eyes widened immensely as the once grassy plain was suddenly decimated. Large rocks overturned and Jiraiya tried desperately to keep his balance and avoid flying rubble.

'That monster strength I forgot…Tsunade trained this one. She's like a mini-Tsunade!' Jiraiya thought while cursing his luck.

Naruko stared at her teammate in wonder. She never imagined that Sakura would gain such strength so quickly. The blonde girl didn't quite understand how such massive physical strength was possible but she now held such a huge respect for her teammate's strength.

'Sakura-chan is so cool!' Naruko thought.

The blonde shook her head and focused on the task at hand. Her fighting style required her to get close to her target, and Jiraiya was still too focused on keeping his balance. She smiled to herself as she rushed towards the older man.

While Jiraiya dodged the last large boulder to fly at his face. He suddenly sensed a presence coming in fast behind him. He cursed under his breath and spun around, locking in on Naruko who was approaching at an insane speed. Within seconds Naruko was directly in front of Jiraiya with a kunai in hand. She slashed at his torso but the man batted her arm away and retaliated with a sharp and direct punch at Naruko's collar bone. The smaller girl dipped her body backwards and watched Jiraiya's fist just barely miss the tip of her nose.

Jiraiya's eyes widened when he realized how flexible the young girl was. Fighting up close was probably her specialty. However, even though she managed to dodge his punch, Naruko was now wide open. Jiraiya kicked out his leg, sweeping Naruko off her feet and the girl landed on her back with a 'Thud'.

Jiraiya felt pleased until he witnessed Naruko smirk and evaporate into many bolts of electricity. He threw himself away from the body but couldn't stop a few sparks of electricity from homing onto his left arm.

'Damn, she was a lightning clone…impressive.' Jiraiya thought as his left arm numbed from the electricity.

Seeing Jiraiya distracted, Sakura launched herself at him from behind ready to strike at his back. Her fist was inches away from Jiraiya's back before he flung himself in a backwards flip and flew over the pink haired teen.

"No way!?" Sakura yelled, surprised that the man could sense her attack without looking. Then again, he was a legendary sannin.

Jiraiya landed safely on the ground and paused, taking a deep breath. "You two sure like keeping me on my feet."

In the bushes a few yards away from the open field Naruko smiled hearing Jiraiya's comment. Her past three years with Kakashi had taught her a lot. She was determined to show the older ninja how much she'd grown. Her hands quickly formed multiple hand signs before her lightning began to spark around them.

'Here we go!' Naruko thought.

A sudden bright light flashed in the bushes to the left of Jiraiya and his eyes quickly scanned the forest. He slowly searched the area until suddenly a glowing white beast launched itself out of the bushes, racing for Jiraiya.

'That's-!' Jiraiya mentally gasped, before dodging the animal made out of lightning. The beast quickly spun on its heels ready to run back at Jiraiya.

Sakura watched in amazement. 'That must be one of Naruko's jutsu!' She thought before racing towards the sannin.

The lightning beast ran toward Jiraiya once more, however this time the sannin was more prepared. He slammed his hands into the ground and shouted.

"Earth Style: Rock Wall Jutsu!"

A wall quickly rose out of the ground, preparing to stop the lightning beast but a loud battle cry was made and Jiraiya cursed his luck. Sakura smashed through the wall and the beast jumped through the rubble, still charging viciously.

Jiraiya brought his arms close and braced for the impact, not before noticing the sound of rustling leaves a few yards behind himself.

'Dammit. I underestimated them.' Jiraiya acknowledged silently.

The lightning beast crashed into his body, dissipating into strong currents of electricity. His muscles became locked and restricted, but with a decent amount of force and chakra he managed to turn his body, only to witness Naruko leaping out of the bushes from where she was hidden, a swirling ball of chakra glowing in her hand.

'Rasengan!' Jiraiya thought astonished. 'Kakashi, you've taught her so much.' He mentally praised.

True to Jiraiya's suspicion Naruko ran towards the temporarily paralyzed ninja and thrust her arm forward. Time slowed for the sannin as he watched Naruko closing in. He smiled sadly.

'Naruko…' He thought. 'I haven't been a good godfather to you nor a good teacher. I keep leaving and even though it's for the good of the village, I can't help but regret not being in your life more. But after today I see that you are in good hands. You've truly grown into beautiful and talented young woman. I just hope you get over—.'

"Rasengan!" Naruko shouted drowning out Jiraiya's thoughts and the older man felt the world go dark.

XXXXX

Brown eyes scanned the three people standing before them. Tsunade was gazing at a beaten Jiraiya with a sense of mirth. Seeing him so beaten reminded her of the old days when she would beat up the man herself.

"So, Naruko and Sakura did well in their evaluation I see." I slight smirk eased onto the blonde's face, while Jiraiya pouted with his hands crossed over his chest.

"Hey I wasn't trying my hardest Tsunade-hime! You know that!" The Toad Sage whined, while Naruko and Sakura chuckled beside him.

"Anyhow, you both did excellent." Tsunade said, ignoring Jiraiya. "I'm grateful to have such talented ninja under my command. Team Seven will absolutely be reinstated and I'll have a mission ready for you tomorrow."

Naruko nodded appreciably, however Sakura raised her hand in question. "Master, what about a third teammate? We still need one if Team Seven is to be reinstated as a functioning team."

Naruko dipped her head down at Sakura's words. It seemed that Sakura had accepted that the space Sasuke once filled on the team was empty. Naruko still hoped that Sasuke would one day return. He had too!

Tsunade quickly noticed Naruko's shift in behavior and sighed. "Perhaps I will find a temporary new member."

Sakura nodded and both she and Naruko made their way out of the office and towards the streets. Jiraiya watched the two girls leave before turning back to his old time friend and teammate.

"They really are quite something. Sakura definitely has your strength and a good sense of the battlefield." Jiraiya commented.

Tsunade nodded with a smirk on her face. "What did you expect? She is my apprentice after all."

Jiraiya nodded and looked out towards the village. The sun was setting over the buildings, creating a warm orange glow over the streets. He felt his body relax at the sight of the peaceful village.

"Is there anything else you needed Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked.

"What mission are you going to give them tomorrow?" The Sage asked.

"Why does it matter to you? They are a capable team." The blonde woman responded.

"Naruko…" Jiraiya whispered against the glass windows of the office.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and reached for a drawer in her desk. She pulled back the wooden compartment and grasped at a brown bottle hidden within.

"You're talking about her condition aren't you?" Tsunade sighed while twisted off the cork in the large bottle and bringing the glass jar to her lips. She let the burning alcoholic liquid travel down her throat before placing the bottle back on her desk.

Tsunade placed her hand on her chin in thought. "Kakashi has been helping her, and I'm sure Sakura will help too once she finds out. It's something that needs to be fixed immediately, but she can't fix it within the walls of the village."

Jiraiya nodded while walking towards the desk and grabbing at the large bottle of liquor. He too took a swig of the Sake and then turned back towards the windows of the office. This time looking beyond the village walls and into the forest.

"Your right…I just hope she doesn't have to struggle much more."

XXXXX

Sasuke grunted as he fell to one knee. His charcoal eyes blurredly watched sweat glide down his nose and drip onto the scorched grass beneath him. His clothes were practically shredded, and cuts both deep and shallow littered his body. Surrounding him was a once beautiful green field burnt from the use of multiple fire jutsu. Dead bodies littered the ground, most of them charred beyond identification.

This was one of the many bandit camps Madara had him clear out for training. It seemed that these particular bandits were skilled missing-nin among the ranks of chuunin and even some jonin, something that Madara had failed to mention. Sasuke didn't mind though. What chance of protecting Naruko did he have if he couldn't defeat all those that stood before him.

A vortex of swirling air appeared next to the young Uchiha and out stepped the masked ninja that had taught Sasuke almost everything he knew in the past three years.

"Good job Sasuke, I'm sure even Itachi would have trouble taking on all those ninja. It won't be long before you can match him." Madara's dark voice spoke.

Sasuke, too tired to speak, nodded his head. Silently proud of his most recent training success. Madara was an interesting mentor, but effective none the less. Sasuke improved most of his skills in the midst of combat, constantly gaining experience in the battlefield, something he lacked before.

"Come, let's get back to the base and get you healed up. I've already found someone who will truly test how powerful you are."

"Who?" Sasuke gasped, finding it hard to speak but his curiosity had gotten the best of him.

"I believe you've already met…You remember Orochimaru right?"

Sasuke closed his eyes while remembering the Snake Sannin from the Forest of Death. Sasuke would be lying if he said that the Snake Sannin didn't scare him. Sure he had gotten much stronger than the last time they fought, but his experience with Orochimaru was certainly unpleasant. There was a small seed of doubt in Sasuke's mind, but he reminded himself that there was no other way. He had to face Orochimaru now, and he had to win. Sasuke placed his hand over the sealed curse mark on his neck as Madara sucked up the both of them in a vortex, leaving the decimated field.

XXXXX

As Naruko and Sakura left the Hokage building, Naruko couldn't help but think about Sasuke. Hearing about a possible new teammate slightly angered the girl. No one would ever take Sasuke's place, it wasn't possible.

Sakura noticed how silent Naruko was and coughed to get the girl's attention. Naruko looked up at Sakura, trying to hide her current feelings. Which seemed to work as Sakura didn't make any indication that she noticed.

"I can't believe we actually beat Jiraiya the Toad Sage in a spar! We should go celebrate!" Sakura said, nudging Naruko's shoulder.

Naruko nodded while smiling and suddenly Sakura was dragging her through the streets, eventually arriving at Itchiraku Ramen. Naruko decided to put her issues with the upcoming team seven member in the back of her mind. Right now, she needed to celebrate with Sakura. Besides, when was the last time that they actually got to hang out as friends?

 **XXXXX**

 **This particular chapter was somewhat difficult to write due to the time gap, but I think it went well. To be honest I don't think i'm that good at the fight scenes. What do you guys think? Please comment or review! I appreciate you all!**

 **Until next time!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello everyone, back again with another chapter. I just wanted to let you all know that this chapter in particular will be the chapter to introduce more mature content. Naruko is growing up and in the ninja world she and Sasuke will be maturing through their environment. Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment or review!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto :(**

 **XXXXX**

It was dark, really dark. Naruko stood in the center of a room of which she had no recollection. While she hazily tried to remember where she was or how she got there, a dull orange ember suddenly lit up within a lantern behind her. She swiveled her head and watched as the flame grew, warmly lighting up the room she was in. While the light expanded she noticed the mattress in the corner, a night stand beside it. The lantern glowed on top of the nightstand, the small fire within brought a calming sense to the young blonde.

A sudden creaking of a door brought Naruko's attention away from the bed and towards the room's entrance. She saw a figure, taller than her leaning against the door frame, and as the light in the room grew brighter, the shadow that had shrouded the figure in mystery began to slowly disappear. Naruko felt her eyes widen, as she began to realize who was standing in front of her.

Black spikey hair, tall lean figure, pale complexion, and charcoal black eyes that somehow managed to show so much emotion while they gazed upon her. Naruko's breath hitched. After so many years apart were they finally reunited? She called out to him in a gentle whisper, as if startling him would cause him to disappear forever.

"Sasuke, is that you?" She whispered.

Sasuke took a step further into the room. The wood creaked beneath his feet, other than that the room was completely silent. The black haired Uchiha came closer and closer until he was standing a few mere inches away from Naruko. Naruko tried to restrain herself, but ultimately launched herself forward and gripped onto Sasuke, holding him tightly.

"I-is it really you?" She asked, trembling as tears began to shine in her eyes. She dug her face into his chest, remembering his scent, trying to be absolutely sure that this wasn't fake.

"Yeah…it's me." Sasuke replied. Naruko choked back a sob as Sasuke confirmed his existence.

Sasuke's arms pulled Naruko out of her chest and while Naruko was immediately missing the closeness between them, Sasuke leaned down and placed his lips against hers. Naruko felt the muscles in her legs go numb and latched her arms around Sasuke's neck for support. The Uchiha lifted his lips off of Naruko's but Naruko thrust her lips forward, roughly against his own. She needed him. As their lips began roughly colliding together, Naruko felt her body heat up. This feeling of need, she had never felt something so…intense.

Naruko moaned against Sasuke and felt his arms wrapping around the small of her back before picking her up and throwing her on the bed. Naruko laughed with excitement and joy before she was silenced again by Sasuke's lips. This time he was on top of her, holding her down on the bed and kissing her.

Naruko could sense the growing lust within her and gasped as Sasuke began kissing at her neck. All Naruko could do was grip Sasuke's shoulder blades, appreciating his smooth yet muscular body. She felt his tongue trace over her skin, slowly licking and kissing further down her neck.

'More…' She thought, 'I want more.'

As if complying with her thoughts, she felt Sasuke pull at her jacket zipper, tugging it downward and revealing her black tank top underneath. The Uchiha kissed at her collar bone and Naruko's eyes were clouded with lust. She gripped the back of his head, entangling her fingers in his jet black hair and pressing him closer to her body.

Sasuke placed his fingers at the hem of her tank top, ready to lift the clothing off of her and reveal her upper body to him. Sasuke lifted his eyes and made contact with Naruko's own lusty blue ones.

"Can I?" Sasuke asked, his voice was slow and husky.

Naruko couldn't trust herself to speak properly so instead she nodded her head. His hands slowly lifted the black material up, while gliding across Naruko's smooth stomach. Naruko felt shivers run through her body while she felt her body being further and further exposed to the man she loved. There was such an intoxicating warmth that Sasuke gave off and she closed her eyes in bliss.

Suddenly the warmth was gone. She opened her eyes in curiosity and found that the room was cold and Sasuke was nowhere to be found. The lantern at her bedside was making strange noises as the fire that was held within began to thrash around violently. Naruko watched her breath leave her lungs in a cold misty air and suddenly she felt a great sense of fear.

"Sasuke?!" She called out, but there was no response.

The house began to rumble and items were falling off their shelves. Naruko quickly jumped out of the bed and tried to stead herself. The fire in the lantern began to grow larger and larger until the glass shattered and the flames spilled onto the floor. Naruko gasped and ran out of the room, feeling a large, painful heat growing behind her.

She raced out of the Uchiha mansion and crashed onto the dirt path. She looked behind her and saw that the entire mansion was now a blazing inferno. Horrified Naruko screamed for help but her voice was drowned out by an animalistic roar. She felt her body freeze and she looked towards the direction of the roar. Then she could see it. Her village was up in flames, and beyond that she could see a massive creature with orange fur, bright red eyes, and nine tails. The red slitted eyes of the nine tails glared across the village, staring at Naruko, and Naruko felt her entire world go dark.

XXXXX

"NOOO!" Naruko shrieked as she suddenly flung her body up right. She stared around her bedroom and noticed that everything was still intact and the sun was fluttering through her blinds. She jumped out of the bed and hurriedly looked out her window, sighing with ease as she saw that the village was not on fire and the Kyuubi hadn't been released.

"A dream…" She muttered with relief.

Across her bedroom, a sudden buzzing noise from her alarm clock made itself present and Naruko remembered that she had a mission today. Shaking the thoughts of her dream/nightmare out of her head, Naruko ran to the closet and changed into her ninja uniform.

Finally she would be able to go out on a mission! It's been too long for the young blonde.

XXXXX

Dust flicked up from the dirt path as Naruko, followed by three others, raced past the opening gates of Konoha. Naruko smiled gleefully as she took large strides across the land, enjoying the feeling of being outside the village. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with fresh air.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself Naruko-san, you know the air here is no different from inside the village." A weirdly monotone voice said from behind her.

Whatever good mood Naruko was in, was now gone. The owner of the voice was their third new teammate, an odd boy with a pale complexion, black hair, and a weird sense of social situations. His name was Sai, and despite Naruko wanting to understand and get to know the boy, she couldn't get past the fact that he was Sasuke's replacement.

Naruko didn't like Sai one bit, and it was even worse when he made passive aggressive comments about her looks or her actions. She wanted to scream at the boy at least five times since he was assigned to team 7 only an hour ago. Naruko decided it would probably be best to ignore him and focus on the mission.

The mission itself was actually quite simple. Apparently there were multiple sightings of bandits around the edges of the village, and Team 7 was tasked to hunt down and take out any enemies in the area. According to Kakashi, bandits would most likely hide near the edges of the main road to abuse any merchants or supplies leaving or entering the village.

Naruko kept her senses alert as she raced along the road, scanning the trees for any foreign movement. Behind Naruko, Sai was trailing on her left, keeping watch on his side of the forest, while Sakura was watching the right side. Kakashi was in the very back, double checking everyone's sections. No mere bandits would be able to hide from them.

Everything looked normal until Naruko spotted a strange green spot deep into the forest on her right. It looked like there was a dirty green blanket clumped up on the ground, trying to hide itself amongst the similar green grass.

"Left!" Naruko shouted.

"I see it!" Sakura yelled back, while Kakashi and Sai nodded.

The ninja team pivoted their feet and launched themselves into the forest in a wide line. As they approached the large blanket, it began to move and shake violently.

"We've been spotted! Run!" A gruff voice yelled before the green sheet was thrown back, revealing roughly twelve muscular and mean looking men.

'Found them.' Naruko smirked as she chased them through the forest.

The blonde weaved through the trees, barely missing the bark with her skin. She could feel her legs moving faster and faster, her body naturally fueling them with chakra. The bandits were running fast and with a head start, they found an advantage in preparing an ambush. They raced to a clearing near the edge of the forest and began laying down ropes and traps, only to be surprised as Naruko flew into the clearing much earlier than they expected. Naruko immediately began to flash through multiple hand signs.

"Lightning Beast Running Jutsu!" Naruko shouted as lightning began to spark at her hands and suddenly a beast made out of lightning was running along her side.

She watched as the beast collided with the closest bandit and he crashed into the ground in a paralyzed state. Naruko could hear many of the bandits curse and shout before turning around to face her. Perhaps they thought they could quickly surround and defeat her.

Naruko stopped running and watched as the bandits began surrounding her, shouting insults and disturbing thoughts. None of that mattered though. With a triumphant roar the bandits raced forward with simple weapons like spears and axes and Naruko closed her eyes.

XXXXX

Sakura, Kakashi, and Sai ran through the forest, chasing after Naruko. Sakura couldn't believe how fast her blonde teammate had been. Was it just her excitement that fueled Naruko's speed? Or something greater?

She shook her head, no longer concerned about her friend's speed, but her wellbeing. It came as no surprise to Sakura that Naruko was excited about her first mission in years, but Kakashi's clearly concerned face is what made Sakura worry so much. Why was Kakashi so worried?

As they came closer and closer to Naruko's chakra, Kakashi began to speed up more and more, concern for his young pupil triumphing his knowledge that she was strong. He knew Naruko wasn't going to be defeated by a group of bandits, he just wanted to be there after the fight.

As the rest of Team 7 came into the forest clearing they immediately heard the battle cry of the bandits closing in on Naruko. Sakura's eyes widened as she watched them slowly dive towards her teammate, who seemed to just be standing there in concentration.

Sakura's green eyes could barely make out a tiny movement around Naruko, no wait that was electricity. Suddenly more electricity gathered around Naruko, then Sakura heard her teammate shout.

"Chidori Nagashi!" Naruko shouted, while lightning all around her burst outwards, latching onto all the bandits that surrounded her, paralyzing them.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as Naruko turned to look back at her team while grinning cheekily. Not soon after her entire team had surrounded her.

"Naruko-chan! You had me so worried!" Sakura shouted.

Naruko chuckled shyly while scratching the back of her neck, only for Kakashi to 'boop' her on the top of her head with his hand.

"Ah hurts!" Naruko whined while crouching down and rubbing the top of her head.

"Next time don't run off without the rest of your team." Kakashi scolded while Naruko nodded, understanding that her actions were not thought out completely.

Sai walked over to one of the downed bandits and gave him a little kick to see if he was alive. A groan confirmed that the man, in fact all of the bandits were still alive.

"We better haul them back to the village." Sai said, "Get whatever intel we can."

"Good idea Sai." Kakashi commented, and the rest of Team 7 went to pick up the downed bandits.

Naruko placed her hands in a cross formation and built up the chakra within herself.

"Shadow Clone Jut-"

"Naruko watch out!" Sakura cried, as the bandit that had been paralyzed first, had seemingly recovered and was now running towards Naruko, ready to strike her in the back.

Everything happened in an instant. Naruko, off of mere training and reaction fished a kunai out of her pouch and whirled her body around, swinging the kunai in her hand with unrivaled accuracy. Naruko's eyes widened at her own actions and watched as the kunai slowly pierced into the man's temple, causing blood to rush out in a messy stream. The bandit fell sideways, dead instantly.

Sakura sighed in relief, but watched as Kakashi raced to Naruko's side faster than she had ever seen. The pink haired ninja decided to run over as well, perhaps Naruko had been hurt in that surprise attack.

As Sakura came closer and closer to Naruko and Kakashi she knew something was wrong. It seemed as though Naruko was shaking while Kakashi was trying to tell her something. When Sakura had finally managed to make it to the pair of ninja she saw it. Sakura suddenly knew what condition Jiraiya was talking about. The thing holding Naruko back as a ninja.

Naruko's blue eyes were wide with fear and shock. Her body was trembling uncontrollably as tears began to form in her eyes. The young girl kept muttering to herself, struggling with her actions.

"I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it." She repeated over and over.

Kakashi was at her side, holding Naruko and trying to calm her down. He knew what to do, because this had happened many times before.

"It's okay Naruko." Kakashi whispered, although he knew it would be awhile before she would recover.

Sakura stood by and watched with sadness in her eyes, as she witnessed her dear friend breaking down.

Naruko couldn't kill.

XXXXX

It was night. A cry for help was suddenly changed into sounds of gurgling blood. Two guards standing in front of a metal door cringed in fear and gripped their weapons tighter. Sounds of slashing death made its way into their ears and for a moment they wondered if they should stay or run.

A figure slowly approached out of the shadows, a blade being held out to the side, letting the blood that it had just been coated in, fall onto the grass below. Two red eyes glared through the darkness and the guards had enough fear built up in them that they ran, but not far. In a single motion, the figure's blade had sliced their heads clean off, and the man continued to step closer and closer to the door.

An explosion of fire had blown the door off its hinges and the figure stepped into the dimly light corridor. Two fully mature sharingan eyes scanned the nearby surroundings and detected multiple enemies coming towards him. With a set of quick hand signs and chakra, a ball of fire traveled down the hallway and incinerated the unknowing enemies.

The dark figure stepped over the burned ashes and corpses not sparring them a glance before arriving at his destination. A large wooden door was kicked open and within revealed a throne like chair, and sitting in the chair was none other than Orochimaru.

The snake eyes gazed at the figure with curiosity and interest.

"You finally decided to come out from hiding eh…Sasuke?" Orochimaru chuckled.

Sasuke took a deep breath and let it out slowly before raising his sword, not muttering a single word.

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 **Personally I loved this chapter, but I'm interested in what you all think! Although I have a very specific plan for the story, I'm still open to new ideas and twists so please review and comment, even P.M. Me if you have any questions!**

 **Bye!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Well, I've somehow written a new chapter! I really do love this story and it seems like I keep appologizing for my inconsistant uploads but I sincerely want to thank anyone and everyone that enjoys reading this story! Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review or comment! I still read all of them!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!**

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Within a large open room that spanned several dozen feet high, a battle between two individuals was taking place. Both ninja were blurrily racing across the room at a lightning fast speed, clashing their swords together and letting the sparks fly between the pressures of the blades. The battle between one of the last Uchiha and the Snake Sannin had begun.

While Orochimaru was naturally brilliant in the shinobi arts and knew many forbidden jutsu, he currently could not comprehend how powerful Sasuke had become in just three years. Orochimaru wondered just what exactly Sasuke had been doing since he left the leaf village. The snake sannin didn't have much time to think further as he dodged an incoming swing from Sasuke's blade and leapt onto the side of the wall, using chakra in his feet to stick to the surface.

Golden slitted eyes glared down at the young teen before them. Blazing red sharingan eyes had glared back. Sasuke knew that this would be a difficult fight for him, but at the same time, it was necessary. During his years with Madara he learned that only hatred and anger could make him stronger. The sharingan fed off these emotions and like a chain reaction, Sasuke could feel the power doubling within him. It also reinforced what Itachi had told him all those years ago, saying that he lacked hatred.

So what did Sasuke hate? At the start of his training his hartred was only based on the ambition to kill Itachi, but Madara opened his eyes to so much more. Sasuke learned to create hate from nearly anything and everything. When Sasuke realized his strength in hatred, he became addicted. It was exactly what he wanted. Right now, Sasuke was remembering his fight with Orochimaru all those years ago in the Forest of Death, and how Orochimaru toyed with the young Uchiha. His anger swelled as he recalled how weak he was and how strong the sannin was.

Red sharingan eyes spun in a rapid fury, reflecting Sasuke's negative emotions, and the young Uchiha launched himself after the Sannin. Orochimaru deflected Sasuke's sword and leapt back onto the ground while forming multiple hand signs. A horde of snakes erupted from the ground underneath and launched themselves at Sasuke, but the Uchiha kept moving forward. He turned his body and dodged the snakes that were targeting him. He ducked under one aimed at his head before slashing multiple snakes in his way, all while continuing to move forward.

Sasuke's red eyes moved around in a flurry, taking note of where everything in the room was, nothing would escape his eyes. Orochimaru's golden eyes widened as he realized that his current attack wasn't even slowing down the Uchiha. Pale white hands formed a new set of hand signs and prepared another jutsu, however Orochimaru was stunned as he felt two hands grab his shoulders.

Sasuke launched his knee into Orochimaru's stomach and watched the Sannin kneel over in stunned pain. However, as Sasuke slashed at the stunned Orochimaru with his sword, Orochimaru turned into a mud figure, revealing a simple clone.

Sasuke scanned the room for any signs of the Sannin, only to hear the sound of concrete cracking. Red eyes widened as the floor beneath Sasuke cracked and a metal sword shot upwards, slicing part of Sasuke's arm.

The young Uchiha jumped backwards as Orochimaru's head flew out of the hole, a sword extending from his mouth. Orochimaru let his pale neck lengthen and chased after Sasuke. While the Uchiha dodging the Sannin's sword, he felt his anger rise due to the throbbing pain in his arm. Everything Madara taught him, included using his anger, and with that, Sasuke felt himself concentrate and moved to attack, dodging Orochimaru's head and roughly grabbing the ninja's extended neck.

Orochimaru choked as his breath was restricted. He looked back with wide eyes seeing Sasuke holding his neck with his bloodied hand, and his other hand ready to slash downwards with his and cut off the Snake Sannin's head.

'Huh…and they say I'm ruthless.' Orochimaru thought with a smirk.

As Sasuke's sword swung down and sliced through Orochimaru's neck, a thick stream of blood coated the Uchiha and Sasuke watched Orochimaru's head fall onto the ground below. Just as Sasuke was about to sheath his sword, he watched snake's rush out of the ground where Orochimaru came out of, carrying his body. They clasped together, reattaching the Snake Sannin.

"Disgusting." Sasuke spat under his breath.

Orochimaru steadily stood back up, cracking his neck to the side and still a little woozy from losing a large amount of blood, but the Sannin had a trick up his sleeve. Orochimaru put his fingers into a very specific hand sign and suddenly Sasuke felt a searing pain in his neck.

The young Uchiha fell to one knee as his curse mark began pulsing with pain. Orochimaru chuckled with his dry raspy voice.

"Poor little Sasuke, even though you've gotten much stronger, you could never defeat me…"

Sasuke grimaced, trying to overcoming the paralyzing pain that the curse mark held, while Orochimaru was slowly approaching the teen. He felt Orochimaru's hand roughly grip his chin and make Sasuke look up at him.

Sasuke used this chance to cast a genjutsu over the Sannin with his eyes, however before Sasuke could do so, he suddenly found himself covered in some sort of pink muscle. It covered his body and restricted his movements.

"What is this?" He grunted as he struggled against his restraints.

"This is my world Uchiha!" Orochimaru's voice boomed all around as the Snake Sannin began to emerge from the ground, right in front of Sasuke. "And this is where I'll steal your body." Orochimaru smirked while licking his lips.

Sasuke stared at the man in defiance before calming himself. In this muscle he could feel Orochimaru's ambition trying to consume him, but he couldn't die here. He felt Orochimaru's will trying to overcome his own, and during this time, Sasuke felt his mind swirl in confusion. He was forgetting things about himself, losing memories that he cherished. He latched onto what he could, struggling to hold onto the idea of killing his brother and then he tried to remember another thing he cherished.

 _"_ _You know, you and I, we're different from others our age... You never had parents and I lost mine, and we both carry large burdens on our shoulders. We should look out for each other more often." He whispered, hoping that Naruko had just gone to sleep. However he heard a deep happy sigh from the girl beside him._

 _"_ _I would like that a lot." She said quietly, feeling her cheeks warm at what the black haired Uchiha had said. Happiness consumed her thoughts as she leaned onto his shoulder with her eyes closed._

 _"_ _Oi! Get off! That doesn't mean you can sleep on me!" Sasuke whispered harshly. His only response was Naruko's soft breathing as she had already fallen asleep._

 _"Oi!"_

"Naruko." Sasuke whispered as he felt his mind darken further and further. Then Sasuke opened his eyes, using all his power to fight Orochimaru. He forced his mind to hold onto the things he cherished and felt a rush of power that was slowly destroying Orochimaru's influence.

Orochimaru felt his body go numb and cold as the pink muscle surrounding Sasuke was turning black and expanding out towards himself.

"No! That's impossible! This is my world!" Orochimaru gasped as Sasuke's ambition clouded his own.

Sasuke suddenly felt himself back in Orochimaru's throne room. Blood covered Sasuke's body from his attack on Orochimaru earlier, dead snakes were scattered all over the floor and in front of Sasuke, was Orochimaru, lying on the floor.

Sasuke flashed through multiple hand signs before blowing out a stream of fire from his mouth. The flames covered the Snake Sannin's body and Sasuke watched the man's body turn to ashes before leaving.

Sasuke calmly walked out of the room, and as he left, Kabuto came around the corner and froze as he watched the Uchiha calmly walk by without a glance.

"Are you Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked hesitantly, truly unsure of whom exactly he was speaking to.

Sasuke stopped and looked back at the white haired man. Sharingan eyes spun slowly as Sasuke glared at the man.

"What do you think?" Sasuke asked before walking away, leaving behind a confused Kabuto.

When Sasuke made it outside he fell over sideways, panting from exhaustion. No longer could he keep up his arrogant act. Sasuke's exhaustion was not only a physical one, but a mental as well. Nearly losing his memories and practically his soul, had really affected the young Uchiha. His mind was still swirling with confusion as he slowly pieced together which memories were his, causing a severe headache.

XXXXX

Sakura, Kakashi and Sai sat in silence as they watched Naruko laying against a tree, her eyes downcast and seemingly empty.

"She's been like that for an hour now." Sakura mumbled.

Kakashi nodded his head, "She usually acts like this for at least a week. Tsunade-sama figured Naruko would get better overtime as she…well…killed more people."

Sakura watched Naruko with concerned green eyes.

"What happened to her to make her react like that?" Sakura asked quietly while staring across the field at Naruko.

Kakashi sighed. "I was going to have her tell you guys when she was ready but since it's already affected our mission I guess I'll explain. It happened about a year ago during an escort mission…Naruko and I were ambushed."

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Flashback

XXXXX

 _Kakashi and Naruko pushed their backs up against a large wooden wagon filled with scared civilians. Out from the dark forest emerged dozens of chuckling bandits, merrily swinging their weapons as they laughed with dark intentions clearly hidden in their voices._

 _One of the bandits, presumably the leader of the group, stood before the two ninja in an arrogant stance staring directly into Kakashi's single unamused eye._

 _"Listen here ninja…just give us those people you have in that there wagon, and I promise no harm will ever come to you…" The leader turned his head towards Naruko and licked his lips disgustingly, "...why not give us the girl too…we'll take good care of her" He grinned._

 _Naruko at first felt slightly intimidated by the man staring at her so perversely, but when the other men around their leader began eyeing her as well, she felt a deep anger rising from within her chest. Her vision grew keener, her body tensed as an enormous pressure was bursting through her muscles._

 _"Ill kill you all before I let any of you touch me!" Naruko growled out._

 _Kakashi turned and looked at his student with worry. He knew that these bandits were no match for him and Naruko together, hell, Naruko could probably take them all on herself without the kyuubi's power. However, he could sense the Kyuubi's chakra mixing with her own. He would always remember the feeling that came whenever the Nine tail's dense and powerful chakra flooded into the air, and Kakashi knew that nothing good ever came from it._

 _"Naruko how about you calm dow-"_

 _"Look at that boys!" The leader yelled out, overpowering Kakashi's voice, "She's feisty…" The Leader took a step forward and drew his sword. "I like that."_

 _There were just a few moments of silence before Naruko shot herself towards the leader of the bandits. Her power so strong that there were two small craters where her feet were once standing. In the blink of an eye she was standing right in front of the man, her hand grasped tightly around his neck._

 _The leader's horrified eyes stared into dark red slitted eyes as he gurgled and gasped for air._

 _"I told you…" Naruko growled, "I'll kill you all before you lay a single hand on me!"_

 _With incredible strength Naruko closed her hand completely around the man's neck, crushing his windpipe. The sounds of snapping bones didn't bother Naruko, in fact, she kinda liked the sound, and without a second thought she drove her other fist into the barely alive leader's chest, breaking through his ribcage and holding a heart that was beating so furiously that it might explode. It didn't have the chance though as Naruko crushed it herself._

 _The man dropped to the ground dead and the dozen other men around them screamed as they began to run away, however Naruko was too quick, her Kyuubi enhanced abilities allowed her to reach every single man and brutally kill them before Kakashi had even had a chance to stop the massacre. When the carnage was over and there were no longer any bodies left to slay, Naruko's eyes returned back to her deep blue color._

 _Kakashi landed near her almost instantly after, his hand on her shoulder. He relaxed when he realized that the Kyuubi had only been able to take control for a short amount of time._

 _However, Kakashi was taken out of his relaxed manor when Naruko screamed a horrifying scream. His eye quickly turned to look at her and saw that she was shaking. Naruko's blue eyes looked down at her own body covered head to toe in blood. Her eyes then rapidly scanned the forest seeing all the mutilated corpses that littered the grass. They were killed so violently that Naruko had felt the urge to throw up immediately._

 _A cry from the wagon brought Naruko out of her horrified trance._

 _"Monster!" Some woman in the wagon screamed as she pointed a finger at Naruko. "What kind of ugly monster are you?!"_

 _"What have I done?…" Naruko whispered as tears began to well up in her eyes. She looked towards her mentor hoping that he wasn't just as disgusted with her as she herself was. "Sensei…what did I do?" Naruko cried._

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Flashback End

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"And since then, Naruko hasn't been able to kill anyone without breaking down…she's afraid she'll lose control of the Kyuubi." Kakashi said while Sakura and Sai listened with downcast expressions.

Sai was the first to stand up. Sakura looked at him, confusion marring her face.

"Sai what are you-"

Sai turned towards Sakura, a small, almost fake smile plastered on his pale face.

"I'm going to go try and cheer her up." He said before turning towards the tree Naruko was resting on and walking over.

XXXXX

Naruko rested her body against a large tree trunk. She couldn't stand the feeling that was coursing through her body. A deep sense of regret and guilt, but those emotions weren't the things concerning her. No, the thing that concerned her the most was that she could tell that some part of her enjoyed killing that man, enjoyed ending a life. She was beginning to wonder if it was the Kyuubi's influence, or perhaps an even more terrifying thought if it wasn't.

"Hello Naruko." Sai's voice pierced through her thoughts.

Naruko looked away from the young man, too upset to be talking to someone she didn't particularly like. In fact, she didn't want to talk to anybody right now. Except….

"What's your favorite animal?" Sai suddenly asked.

Naruko, shocked at the sudden strange topic that came from Sai's mouth. She eyed him before sighing and returning to her silenced state.

"Mine is probably a mouse." Sai said as he pulled out his notebook and began drawing on the pages.

The girl sighed once more, really trying to show Sai that she wasn't interested in anything he had to say, especially about something so stupid as what was her favorite animal?

Suddenly she felt something small climb up onto her shoulder and she turned her head to look at the small weight that she felt. Blue eyes widened as she stared directly into the face of an all-black mouse that looked like it had been made from ink.

"Cute right?" Sai said cheerily.

Naruko wanted to resist the urge to speak and go back to her depressed state, but she was beyond curious about Sai's abilities.

"How?" Naruko whispered in awe.

Sai turned his notebook around and showed her the picture of the mouse he had drawn. "I use the ink as a catalyst for my jutsu. I can pretty much bring anything to life if I can draw it. "

Naruko nodded her head in amusement. She had never heard about such an ability before.

"What's your favorite animal?" Sai asked once more, and this time Naruko felt more inclined to answer.

"Hmmm…a bunny" Naruko said.

Within moments a bunny mad of ink hopped out of Sai's notebook and landed directly in Naruko's lap. Naruko smiled as the bunny moved around in her lap. She moved her hand towards it and the bunny nuzzled the tips of her fingers with its face.

Naruko let out a small laugh and continued to play with the small bunny in her lap. After a few minutes Sai placed his hand out for Naruko to take.

"Let's go back home Naruko…not that you're all cheered up." Sai smiled.

Naruko took Sai's hand and slowly stood up, the bunny fell from her lap and hopped around her legs while she stretched out her limbs. Sai waved over a surprised Kakashi and Sakura while turning to walk towards the village himself.

Naruko waved goodbye to the ink bunny before it disappeared and began to walk back towards Konoha. Perhaps she misjudged Sai…

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 **Sorry that Sasuke's moment when he remembers Naruko is a little cliche', I really thought hard about that fight and I want to know your guy's opinions! Was it a good chapter? bad chapter? an "I don't care about you or your stories because you suck at writing** **consistently** **" kind of chapter? Let me know! Until Next Time!**


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